Outfoxed
by tbjeebies
Summary: There's always been something very strange about Naruto. How was he such a genius in some ways and an idiot in others? But when his rival dies and he's powerless to stop it, his dream changes and he goes in a different direction. Logical applications of chakra, secrets from the start.
1. The Logical Conclusion

I don't own Naruto. AN goes at the bottom.

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><p>An inch might as well be a mile. That was what Haku was thinking, at least, as her ice senbon slid into the neck of the Uchiha heir. She'd accounted for him squirming out of the way of her senbon, but not for his preternatural eyes. She'd calculated where he was going to dodge and thrown accordingly. He'd seen her minute muscle tensions and started to dodge before she even threw, throwing off her calculations.<p>

It was funny what an inch of difference could make. The difference between, say, an innocent nerve cluster that could paralyse, and the carotid artery.

Sasuke went down in a gush of blood as Naruto looked on, stunned.

"Sasuke!" he screamed, ignoring the battle and rushing to his teammate's side.

"Dobe," Sasuke said. His voice was quavering as he spoke, and his eyes were unfocused. He reached up his hand to poke Naruto's forehead. "Don'-"

The voice trailed off as Sasuke's eyes closed and he lost consciousness.

"Sasuke! Hold on! I'll get us out of here!"

"It is hard to lose your precious people, isn't it?" Haku said. "I'm sorry to tell you that your path will only lead to more of this."

"Shut. Up," the blonde replied, the temperature inside the ice dome rising. "You don't get to say anything right now. I'll kill you!"

Haku had been preparing to fly out of one of the mirrors, but was blasted back by a wave of oppressive chakra.

"What is this boy?" she wondered.

* * *

><p>Kakashi and Zabuza were at a stalemate; oversized cleaver being held at bay by a simple kunai. The wave of chakra awoke tragic memories in Kakashi, while Zabuza wondered out loud.<p>

"What the hell is that?"

"That's the cue for us to finish this," the cyclops said.

He jumped back, ran a finger through a cut on his arm, and summoned his nin-dogs. They burst into being all around Zabuza and bit down hard, holding him in place, as Kakashi gripped his right wrist.

'I hope I'm not too late...'

"Chidori!"

* * *

><p>Another mirror cracked under the enraged jinchūriki's assault and Haku found that she no longer had the chakra control to repair it. The red mist permeating the dome was burning her and ruining her concentration. She braced herself as a blood red claw came out of the mist and batted her through a cracked mirror and out of the dome, in clear sight of her master.<p>

"Zabuza-sama," she said, just in time to see Kakashi's hand cleave through his torso. Her wail of anguish was loud and tragic enough to reach everybody on the bridge - even Naruto in his demonic haze. The cheerful blonde's normal personality broke through and the red chakra receded, forced down by his consciousness.

The copy-nin withdrew his hand, watching the life leave his foe's eyes, as the chakra mist sustained by Zabuza's life receded, giving everyone on the bridge a clear view of Gato's mercenary army.

"Shit, you've seen us," Gato said. "Should've hired some better ninja to take care of you. He was a loser and a weakling, but I thought the demon of the mist would at least be able to off a few treehuggers. You get what you pay for, I guess."

The enfeebled Haku staggered to her feet and lumbered over to the magnate.

"Zabuza-sama was NOT a weakling. He was one of the seven swordsman of the mist, and a far better man than you."

"Says his tool. Funny, I thought tools couldn't speak. And I haven't forgotten you breaking my wrist. No... Boys?" the diminutive man said, addressing his mercenary army. "Kill her. Kill all of them. A bonus for whoever can bring me a head and whoever can bring me the loser's sword."

At the blatant disrespect of her father figure, Haku's chakra recovered and started to spike. Kakashi guided Tazuna and Sakura away from Gato, leaving Naruto well alone for the moment. The normally cheerful blond was recovering from his bloodlust, with the red chakra running through his body evaporating slowly.

Haku ran through a series of one-handed seals and screamed. Mirrors coalesced along the sides of the bridge, leaving a corridor occupied solely by the ice ninja and the hired army. As if on cue, the mercenaries rushed forward and Haku sprang into action.

She darted into a mirror and was instantly transported to the rear of the army, where she took down the last row of men with a series of jagged ice spears. Gone was the control over ice and accuracy with senbon that the Konoha team had come to know her for. Hearing the screams of their comrades, several mercenaries turned around, only to be met with a field of bloody ice. Haku darted to the front of the army and repeated the slaughter. The charging men finally stopped, hemmed in on all sides by ice mirrors or a minefield of frozen javelins. With her enemies' movements halted, Haku emerged from the rear of the bridge and slowly moved through hand signs.

"You took my purpose for living from me. Now I will show you despair. Ice Style: Needle Forest Technique!"

From the ground, the air, and the mirrors on either side of the bridge, lances made of ice came into existence and shot through the crowd of men, crisscrossing at high velocity and embedding themselves in anything that came across their path. After thirty seconds, the technique ended and Haku collapsed to the ground, separated from the Konoha ninja by a forest of ice. Just as she struggled to get to her feet and leave, a thick boot stamped down on her neck and planted her back into the ground.

"Fancy. But you ninja are useless once you run out of chakra," Gato said. "The great leveller, I suppose. Even I'm enough to take you out of the equation now."

He was clutching a ninja-to that had been hidden previously, and brought it down to skewer Haku in the torso. But suddenly, a clawed hand burst out of his chest and the blade fell to the ground, only cutting the floored girl slightly.

"It was you," Naruto growled, as his blood-red eyes narrowed at the businessman. "She may have thrown the needle, but you sent the order."

Gato tried to speak, to use his silver tongue to escape this situation, but words finally failed him when the leaf ninja's hand withdrew and his lifeblood splattered along the bridge.

"Feel happy I granted you this mercy," Naruto said. "It's more than you deserve."

With that, the Kyūbi's chakra receded for a second time and the jinchūriki collapsed next to the rogue ninja. He stared into her eyes as his sensei finally bypassed the ice forest and tended to his student. The shame and regret in Haku's eyes stayed with him far after he lapsed into unconsciousness.

* * *

><p>"Somebody would have to carry and feed her. It's too much hassle. We should just kill her and leave her here. It's as much as she deserves for killing Sasuke-kun!"<p>

"That isn't our decision to make, Sakura. The fight is over now. She has a valuable bloodline that Konoha may be able to use, and executions are the team leader's decision. As team leader, I think the Hokage would rather I stayed my hand and brought her home. That is that, and the end of the discussion."

The bedroom door closed as Kakashi walked out and Naruto woke up. He lifted himself into a sitting position and surveyed the room.

"Sakura-chan, what were you talking about?"

"Oh Naruto, you're-"

She crashed into him, hugging him tightly and tearing up. Naruto stiffly put his arms around her and let her cry, reflecting on how, even a day ago, this would have been a dream come true. Now he just patted her back and let the tears flow, trying valiantly not to break down too.

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><p>Hatake Kakashi had been a broken man since long before he'd taken on Team 7. Broken since the death of his teammate, and fractured even further when he'd been forced to kill his remaining teammate. Then his sensei died, along with a sizeable portion of the village, and he'd thrown himself into the ANBU Black Ops in an attempt to find peace or death. Now his chance at possibly redeeming himself, of protecting Obito's legacy, was ruined. And it was his fault. As jōnin, he'd made the call to continue the mission. Despite his students' enthusiasm, the responsibility fell solely on him. And it ate at him.<p>

He had sealed Sasuke's body into a scroll, as well as Zabuza's and his giant sword. The spoils of war would be wanted by the Hokage, even though Kakashi doubted they would result in leniency in any way. The last loyal Uchiha was dead, and his head would roll for this. True, he was the last wielder of the Sharingan in his village, but two new eyes had come onto the market, making him… potentially replaceable.

The villagers that Inari had rounded up hadn't had to do anything in the end, merely coming onto the scene of a slaughter and seeing their bridge turned into a grotesque monument to ninjutsu. Work was halted until the ice melted and the body parts could be cleared away, which was estimated to take nearly a week. In that time, Team 7 was still required to guard the bridge builder - with all that had happened, they weren't going to let the mission fail as well. Kakashi wouldn't let the mission fail. He wasn't trash. No, he thought, as he looked across the bridge and the scene of his student's death. No, he was something much worse.

* * *

><p>Sakura had left to wander around the recovering village, and Naruto was alone. The truth had finally sunk in - Sasuke <em>was<em> dead, it wasn't some illusion or hallucination. The blond ninja had always been lighthearted in the worst of situations, somehow taking all the grief from his village and turning it into motivation. He wanted to become Hokage, have everybody acknowledge him, and protect his previous people. But he now realised - that dream was backwards. He'd already lost a teammate. He may not have ever vocalised it, but Sasuke was important to him. A benchmark, an object of scorn, and somehow, along the way, a friend. The boy had sacrificed himself so that Naruto could live. That was the mark of a comrade. A friend.

But becoming the Hokage in order to protect his precious people was useless if they were already dead. You can't succeed to office in order to gain the people's respect - you must already have it. And that was when Naruto's plans fell to pieces around him. No, his dream was backwards. First he would protect his precious people. Then he would gain recognition. And it was then, and _only _then, he could become Hokage. More than that, he had to live for both himself and Sasuke now, which meant following Sasuke's dream.

'I have work to do if I want to become Hokage,' he thought. 'And kill… a particular man.'

* * *

><p>The clearing where he had first met Haku was quiet now. There was still dew collected in the grass and marks on the trees from where he'd been practicing tree climbing. With a cross seal, he summoned two shadow clones and issued orders.<p>

"I want you to go and scout the area, see if there's anybody nearby. And I want you to do the tree climbing exercise, so I can watch and see if there's any way I can improve."

The clones nodded and got to work. Naruto scrutinised his clone as it slowly tottered up the tree, and saw a few moments where the chakra flow cut off and the clone slipped.

"It's harder than before, boss," the clone said. "I think we have more chakra than we did before."

Naruto nodded, confused, as he continued to watch the clone's progress. After the second ascent, a whirlwind of disconnected memories slammed into his head. His clone that had been sent to scout had been distracted by a squirrel and tripped over a root, slamming into the ground and dispelling itself. Naruto looked around the clearing in confusion, as his clone fell out of the tree and dispersed into a cloud of smoke. The memory influx happened again, and this time Naruto could tell that the clone had been just as confused as he was, and unable to stay glued to the tree.

Naruto was by no means stupid. What he lacked was an effective formal education, experience and wisdom. While no ninja his age would be expected to have the latter two qualities, everybody expected him to have the former, leading to the general ninja populace's assumption that the boy was just a bit dense. But Naruto, in his own way, was rather brilliant. He'd pieced together a usable, if pathetic, taijutsu style despite being taught all the wrong forms in the academy and being criticised whenever he got something right. He'd managed to survive despite grossly inflated grocery prices in the village. His kunai and shuriken accuracy was decent, despite the wrongly-weighted equipment he'd been 'gifted' by a 'concerned villager'. His textbooks had been altered to show all the wrong handseals, causing Naruto difficulty with even the most basic of techniques. But he'd still managed to learn the kawarimi and henge techniques, with the basic clone technique only being out of reach due to his abysmal chakra control. When he'd left the academy, he'd barely known what chakra _was_, but was still using it passably. And when presented with a scroll of forbidden techniques that hardly any of his village's ninja knew, he'd learned one of them in less than an hour, whilst avoiding ANBU, and being hardly able to read the complicated language the scroll used.

"So, what did the scroll say?" he muttered, dredging up the sentences he'd tried to memorise. "Compression and crystallisation of expressed chakra, resulting in a user facsimile with equal chakra distribution and identical memory and personality traits. Facsimile combat proficiency a fraction of the original's potential, but can be increased with technique mastery and chakra control. Provides an even distribution of chakra amongst summoned clones and a return of chakra upon dispersement, dependent upon circumstances and intention of said dispersement. Ah!" he said, as he got to the line he'd been thinking of. "Memories and experiences of facsimile are conveyed to the user and any existing facsimiles upon dispersement, making this an effective technique for scouting and a minor complementary training tool. Caution: dispersement in excess of ten facsimiles, in any circumstance, has resulted in neural damage and even death, and the demanding chakra costs (even division of chakra) are beyond all but jōnin-level shinobi. To be classified as an A-rank kinjutsu based on these factors."

Naruto mulled this for a few minutes, trying to fill in the gaps and determine what that meant. His practical experience, having used the technique for a few months, allowed him to fill in the gaps. His clone's memories came back to him, and that meant he could learn things faster. Strategies, techniques, anything that wasn't physical. But back when he'd defeated Mizuki, he'd created nearly a thousand clones and they'd all dispersed at the same time. He'd then managed to wait for Iruka's medical help, return the scroll (under ANBU supervision), get lectured and congratulated by the old man in equal measure, and stumble home before passing out. The next morning he was fine again. That either meant the scroll was wrong, or that he was somehow different.

'Maybe they put that bit about the brain damage in there to scare people off using the technique for super awesome training, or the Hokage didn't want anybody pumping out thousands of them and becoming stronger than him! Or…' his thoughts turned to the malicious presence inside him. 'Maybe the fox is healing me all the time, and that's why I'm never tired after exercising, or after dismissing all those clones…'

Deciding to carry on with his training, Naruto summoned a hundred clones and set them all to find trees and start climbing. Every hour, twenty clones were to dismiss themselves and pass on the experience to the others, which would make the ones already practicing even better. Although he didn't know it, Naruto had uncovered the possibilities of exponential experience gain. Knowing that his body wouldn't benefit from shadow clone training, he started running, pushing his body as hard as he could.

* * *

><p>When the five hours were up, Naruto was covered in sweat, sitting in the same clearing. The trees were covered in charred marks from all the chakra explosions from when his clones had started experimenting. It had been difficult to exercise while all the information rushed in, but he had soon learned to put the information influx towards the back of his mind while he concentrated on other things. He knew that getting distracted by a dispelled shadow clone could spell out death in battle. He put his hands in the ram seal to concentrate his chakra to summon more clones. Way more clones. His chakra control was better now, the result of about two weeks of accumulated experience, but his goal was perfect control. He remembered Iruka-sensei mentioning that one of the most advanced chakra control exercises involved following the path of chakra inside one's body with the mind's eye and then watching as you pumped it into the world around you. The first Hokage had apparently meditated like this for a week in the hills above Konoha before using the technique that created the forests they now lived within. He figured that, if he was going to learn a chakra control exercise to death, it might as well be the most difficult one possible.<p>

It was amazing how much better his grasp of his chakra was now. He switched from the ram seal to the cross seal and shouted.

"Shadow Clone Technique!"

The clearing erupted into smoke as kage bunshin burst into being. The interesting thing about shadow clones is that they emerge knowing what their creator wants them to do, making verbal orders unnecessary. The thousand clones all ran off into the forest to find a secluded area to perform the meditation exercise in. These ones had been told that ten of them should disperse every six minutes. The blond knew that shorter intervals should speed up the training, and hopefully the dispersements would be easier to deal with. He got started on some punches and kicks while he waited for his clones to do their work. It would take ten hours for all of the clones to disperse, during which Naruto planned to exercise and get some sleep.

After eighteen minutes Naruto felt the pressure of his clones' experience grow strong, and the next set dispersing gave him a mild headache. This continued for the hour, until the first hundred were gone. The pressure reached a high point, and he collapsed mid-pushup.

* * *

><p>Naruto awoke slumped against a wall covered in piping. He was shin-deep in stagnant water and he couldn't see an end to either side of the corridor he was in. Shrugging off the confusion, he picked a direction and trudged off into the distance. As he walked, he focused on his chakra and pulsed it, trying to see if this was an illusion. No deal.<p>

The walk didn't end up taking too long before the corridor opened up into a huge room with a ceiling that led somewhere off into the distance. And, before him, a gigantic cage, held closed by a simple slip of paper.

**"I didn't think I'd be seeing you so soon," **a voice boomed from the darkness.

"Who are y-" Naruto stared as the figure loomed into view. "Kyūbi."

**"That's right, brat. Me. And you should be thanking me for bringing you here. I just saved you from death, or at least insanity."**

"What do you mean?"

**"The way you were dispelling your clones. With every clone you dispelled, the rest gained more experience that simply accumulated. You know how many hours of experience you'd racked up before I knocked you out and brought you here? Let's just say it measured in the years. Over three hundred thousand of them."**

"Three hundred thousand… years?"

**"Years. And you had nine hundred clones left with around the same amount of experience left. Each. Just thank your stars that I managed to dispel them without their knowledge getting passed on. Have you felt your chakra? It should feel like an extension of your body right now. Even I'm not as well-accustomed with my chakra as you will be when I finish filtering out your memories."**

"What do you mean by that?"

**"I'm holding onto the memories and experience so that you don't die from the psychic shock, slowly releasing them so that you don't go mad. Which brings me to the next part of our conversation. A deal."**

"What kind of deal were you thinking?"

**"I'm glad to see you realise I'm not doing this for free. As I'm sure you noticed, I was able to knock you unconscious and bring you here. I will swear not to do this again and filter your memories, in exchange for you learning how to make it nicer around here and letting me have the experience of your senses when I want."**

"So you basically want to spy on me from your nice house inside my mind. Well I have a requirement too. You give me willing access to your chakra whenever I need it."

**"I could agree to that, but for more than you're offering me so far. What I'd need for that… is for you to eventually rip off this seal and fight me for full control."**

"What? Bullshit. I can't defeat you in combat. You're a bijū! A force of nature. It isn't possible."

**"Possible? It's been done before, loath though I am to say. You'll have a chance, and five years to train. Then I get my chance to escape."**

"Twenty years."

The kyūbi gave a bone-rattling sigh.

**"Ten."**

"…fine. Deal."

* * *

><p>Naruto came to, once again, in the clearing. His head was pounding, but his body felt more powerful than ever. He could feel the chakra flowing through his body like a series of waves; each tenketsu pulsed slightly. Figuring that he should get back to his team, he dusted himself off and started on a light jog back.<p>

Kakashi was sitting in a tree overlooking the house when Naruto got back. The man was swinging his legs, staring vacantly into the sky. Naruto walked up the tree and stepped onto the same branch.

"Kakashi-sensei," he said.

The man tilted his head slightly, indicating that he was aware of the boy's presence.

"You need to get stronger. We all do."

Kakashi's head moved back, staring at the horizon once more.

"It wasn't a lack of strength that led to this," he said. "It was bad decisions. My bad decisions."

"Sensei… Regardless of why this happened or whose fault it was, we still need to get stronger. To stop this from happening again. What if, next time, it's Sakura who's at risk? Or me? Or the Hokage? And anyway, I have a new goal now. I need to fulfil Sasuke's ambition."

"You mean to kill that man?"

Naruto nodded.

"Do you even know who he meant?"

"I didn't, but I'm sure someone does. And he must have had a good reason for it."

"Naruto… You know that Sasuke was the last of his clan? Well there's a good reason for that. His clan was killed. Everyone he ever cared about, his entire family, killed. By his brother. For some reason, his brother spared Sasuke and Sasuke alone, torturing him before he fled the village and became a missing-nin. That's the man you say you have to kill… Uchiha Itachi, the man who singlehandedly destroyed Konoha's most prominent clan. You really think you can do that?"

Naruto was silent for a few seconds.

"Yes. I can do that. And you're going to help me."

Kakashi finally looked at Naruto, seeming to come out of his funk somewhat.

"And why? Why should I? You'd be safer if I just let you and Sakura find a different sensei. I know someone who'd happily take you on as an apprentice and I can get Sakura a place as a medic-nin. I've made too many mistakes to carry on teaching. I was better for the village in ANBU black ops. What have I even taught you? Teamwork exercises that mean nothing now. Tree climbing that's of no use against any serious enemy."

"We don't need you to spoon feed us every little thing. You taught us tree climbing. Well, we've both mastered that. We're still a team. All we need is some direction."

"You both completed the exercise passably, but I can't say you've mastered it. I didn't teach you that well."

"Want to try me?"

Kakashi sighed.

"Fine. If you've mastered the technique, you should be able to skate along vertical surfaces. It's a difficult technique that most people don't have the control to use or never bothered to learn. You channel enough chakra to the front of your foot to pull and channel more chakra to the back of your foot to push. The resulting imbalance lets you skim along without falling off."

Naruto stepped onto the trunk and concentrated. After a false start, he was happily zipping up and down the tree, laughing uproariously.

"Haha! This is great! Much better than walking."

He zipped all the way to the ground and started zipping around Tazuna's house, startling Tsunami as she looked up out of the window. He was stopped from his fun when Kakashi landed in front of him, having followed him via tree.

"How is that possible? You shouldn't have the control for that at all."

"I practiced, Kakashi-sensei. I told you."

Kakashi stared at the boy. His mind flashed back to a picture he'd seen in the shinobi archives, of his own sensei, the fourth Hokage, at the same age. The two of them were unmistakably similar, and Kakashi could finally see gleams of Minato's brilliance shining through in the boy. The third Hokage had never explicitly stated that Naruto was Minato's son, but Kakashi had been around when Kushina was pregnant, he'd known what the couple intended to call their child, and he knew that Minato was too noble to sacrifice any child other than his own. He'd had the opportunity to guard the child every so often but saw far more of Kushina in the kid than his father.

But chakra gliding took an intense level of chakra control. Typically only jōnin, genjutsu specialists or medics reached that level. And, as a genin of no more than two months, Naruto had reached the same level. Perhaps the boy was right.

"Okay, Naruto, I'll train you until we get back to Konoha. If I'm still your sensei after I report to the Hokage, then we'll see about carrying on. If you can bring Sakura out here then we can begin."

Naruto ran into Tazuna's house and pulled a morose Sakura out into the back garden.

"Why are you dragging me out here, baka?" she asked. "Can't you just leave me be?"

"Sensei is training us, Sakura. We need to keep our edge!"

The reluctant kunoichi let the enthusiastic blond drag her along until they came to a stop in front of their teacher. The brooding man pulled two slips of paper out of a pouch and handed them to the genin.

"This is chakra paper. You have to channel chakra into it and it will reveal your nature affinities."

"Oh, I've read about this," Sakura hummed. "Made from chakra trees, burns for fire, crumbles for earth, crumples for lightning, splits for wind and moistens for water."

Kakashi nodded.

"That's right. Now try it."

Sakura sent a pulse of energy into the paper and it crumbled to dust, which then start to smoulder. She let the particles fall through her fingers, giving a small 'huh' in surprise.

Naruto followed suit. The paper split into several pieces, a few of which moistened and turned into a sodden mess.

"Earth and fire for Sakura, wind and water for Naruto. Interesting. Of course, that only shows what you'll find easiest. I'm sure this won't stop Naruto from trying to learn lightning techniques though, will it?"

"You'd better believe it!" the teen shouted, falling back on his old personality. "What kind of Hokage would I be if I could only use two elements?"

* * *

><p>"So let me get this straight. You decided to take a team of genin, a team which included the last member of a founding clan of the village and our village's jinchūriki, on a mission that had been misclassified as a C-rank but you knew could have enemy ninja targeting your team. Despite encountering an A-rank jōnin and his accomplice, you continued with the mission, directly resulting in the death of one of the previously-mentioned genin?"<p>

Kakashi looked the Hokage in the eye as he nodded, concealed face drooping in guilt.

"That's about it, yes."

"So, before I make my decision, do you want to suggest how I should go from here? Because, honestly, it will be a hard decision either way."

"I know, Hokage-sama, and I'm sorry for putting you in this situation. If I could make a suggestion, it would be to give Sasuke's eyes to his remaining teammates and let me take them away. Train them. You can't trust my judgement on missions, but a training trip is within my abilities. Naruto has taken on Sasuke's reason for living, similarly to how I reacted to Obito's death. If sensei had been able to take us away and make us into a better team and better individual ninja, well… maybe I wouldn't have had to kill Rin."

Kakashi paused.

"It was killing Rin that awoke my Mangekyo Sharingan. I think that the trauma of Sasuke's death is still so raw that it could awake it in both Naruto and Sakura. I know it sounds mercenary, but the power of the Mangekyo Sharingan isn't something to be sniffed at or passed over."

"So," the Hokage said. "You want me to go directly over the heads of the clans and council, give your two remaining students Sharingan eyes, and let you take them out of the village, _again_ for an extended period of time?"

Kakashi remained silent, not wanting to give the Hokage any better reason to refuse him.

"I will grant the first request and consider the second. I'm not sure I trust you without supervision for the foreseeable future, but I can see what is to be done. For now, bring Naruto and Sakura here so that I can talk to them alone. Inform Tenshu-san from the hospital that he is needed in the clinic in this building. And I will deal with the scrolls you brought back. Although this mission was increased to A-rank, I'm of half a mind to mark it as a failure as punishment. But it was no fault of your students, so I will let it remain. They will receive A-ranked pay and the bounty for Momochi's body. The Kubikiribōchō will be traded back to Mist in due time, likely when the civil war ends. Dismissed."

Kakashi disappeared in a burst of smoke and the Hokage was left alone with the three scrolls the jōnin had left.

"Oh dear. Sasuke… I'm so sorry Itachi," he said.

He took out his pipe and started puffing on it furiously. This was going to be a long week.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: I don't like having to read things from authors before starting to read a fic, so my ANs will be at the bottom, and if you want to skip them and blaze through the story, go nuts. I don't think any of my ideas are original, but none are intentional plagiarism; I've just read so much by now that all the fanon has blurred into one. If you see a concept that you think's lifted from another fic, shout it out, give me a reference if possible, and I'll verify in the next AN. And I changed the name to something a little simpler and a bit more punderful. 'til Sunday. <strong>


	2. Eye-to-Eye

I don't own Naruto.

* * *

><p>"You wanted to see me, Jiji?"<p>

"That I did, Naruto-kun. You too, Sakura-kun. Please sit down."

He indicated two of the chairs that lined the outside of the room.

"As you know, Konoha genin take missions as a four-man cell, consisting of three genin and one jōnin. This is different for institute genin, but that doesn't matter right now."

"Institute genin?" Naruto blurted.

"People who fail the jōnin test don't just get thrown back into the civilian population, baka," Sakura said, weakly. "There's an institute that trains dropouts so that they're able to undertake simpler missions in five-man teams and eventually become chūnin."

"That's right. I've heard much about your prodigious memory, Sakura-kun. But that's not why we're here. I wanted to hear, in your own words, what happened on that mission, how Kakashi led your team, and how you feel about the consequences."

What followed was a description of the mission and the training Kakashi had put them through after Sasuke's death.

"It made me realise that there's no point becoming Hokage if I can't protect the people who are close to me. If I can't do that, how can I protect the village? Becoming Hokage won't make people magically respect me or instantly make me powerful. I need to make that happen before I become Hokage, so that's my ambition now. Not to mention that Sasuke needs somebody to carry on his ambition. I don't know how to revive his clan, but I can try my best to kill his brother."

Sarutobi nodded, turning to Sakura.

"And you?"

"I… I thought Sasuke was my reason for existing. Everything I did was to impress him. But then he was gone, and it left a void in my life. I had to find something to fill it, and all I could think of…"

She glanced at the blond to her side.

"Is that I don't ever want to feel like that again. I want to be strong enough to protect Naruto, and any other teammates I might have. I guess that's not a glamorous ideal, but it'll do for now."

"That's more than admirable. You seem to be dealing with things very maturely. Now don't take it as me underestimating you when I say that I'm going to order you to take a series of sessions with Yamanaka psychiatrists, because I'm not, but our earliest traumas as ninja are often our deepest. I remember the first time I lost a teammate, and I wish I'd had a professional to talk to about it.

Now that I know you're well, I need to broach a more painful subject. Are you familiar with the story of how Kakashi came to possess his Sharingan eye?"

"Yes. Sensei told us when he started training us."

"Then you'll know that Sharingan eye transplants are possible. And… we now have two unused eyes that need new users."

"What?" Naruto shouted. "Butcher Sasuke's body? For what? A little bit of power? You keep telling me that there are no shortcuts to power, Jiji, just like there are no shortcuts to becoming Hokage. Just take his body and bury it - put him to rest, and let the rest of us remember him as he was!"

"That would never happen, Naruto," the Hokage said. "While I agree that there should be no shortcuts, the council will demand that the eyes are transplanted. I can overrule them, but honestly, I see no reason not to. They are a useful resource, just another weapon in any good shinobi's arsenal, and they will be used to protect the village. The only question is who receives the implant. Right now I'm minded to give them to the two of you. If this goes to the council, I've no idea who Sasuke's eyes will go to. You said you wanted to let his memory live on. You can do that personally, looking through his eyes, or you can watch another random shinobi member do it."

"He has a point, Naruto," Sakura said. "Sasuke died to protect you. To protect both of us. He'd want his eyes to protect us too."

Naruto calmed down and crossed his arms.

"I… is this a good idea? I get the logic, but it just doesn't feel right."

"Would seeing somebody else with his eyes feel more right?"

"No. No, it wouldn't. Okay, I'll do it. Sakura?"

"I'll do it too."

"That's all I needed to hear," Sarutobi said. He raised his voice. "Tenshu?"

A distinguished-looking medic walked into the office, carrying a box full of files. He placed them on the desk and adjusted his glasses.

"Medical files for Haruno Sakura and Uzumaki Naruto. The onsite clinic is prepped. All I need is the eyes and your permission, Hokage-sama."

"You may have them both. I will need to oversee the operations."

"I understand. If you would all come with me?"

The medic led them from the office and down a level to a room the same size as the Hokage's office. It had been built in Hashirama's day for if the Hokage or other highly-placed personnel needed immediate medical attention. This meant that it was fully stocked, with an emergency team on 24/7 standby. The two genin were stripped down and given gowns before being placed on beds and given anaesthetic masks.

"Now these records say that Haruno-san's left eye is slightly dominant, so we will replace her right eye. Uzumaki-san's eyes are equally effective, so he will get Uchiha-san's left eye. I will perform Uzumaki-san's operation, while the hospital's head of opthalmology will perform Haruno-san's operate. Hokage-sama, are we clear to proceed?"

"You are. I'll see the two of you when you wake up."

The anaesthetist turned the valve and the gas started to flow into their masks. They were told to count back from ten. Sakura fell unconscious at six, but Naruto was still awake when he reached zero. Surprising the others in the room, he continued counting in negative numbers, finally dropping off at minus twelve.

"Is the resilience due to…"

"You can say that here, Tenshu. Yes, his tenant grants him resilience to all manner of things, and he will likely recover faster. Be careful to keep him under."

"Hai, Hokage-sama."

* * *

><p>Naruto woke up after the operation, but just as he was being cleaned in the post-operation cleanup.<p>

"Gah! Stop wiping my eyeball!"

"Naruto-kun, you're awake. How does it feel?"

Naruto's gaze swept around the room, one red and one blue eye trying to find focus.

"Whoa, it's weird. Like one eye sees things in normal and the other in slow motion. And I can see chakra! Old man, you're like a bonfire!"

"If I look like that, I can only imagine what you look like, Naruto. In fact, it might be best for the two of us to leave the room before Sakura wakes up. Seeing this much chakra may cause her eye strain."

Naruto nodded and jumped off the bed, strolling out of the room after giving Sakura a concerned glance.

"Hokage-sama, it should take days for the body to accept the implant, and for vision to be possible. He needs to be lying down!"

"You underestimate the Uzumaki physical resilience, coupled with his tenant's gifts. Naruto could run a marathon right now and feel no ill effects. But don't worry, I'm taking him to my office where I will make sure he sits down. Please inform us when Sakura is awake."

"Of course, Hokage-sama. Could you at least give him this eyepatch to wear?"

"I'll see what I can do."

The Hokage and the genin walked back up to Sarutobi's office, Naruto fussing over the eyepatch forced on him by the older man. The door closed behind them and Sarutobi dismissed his guards before asking Naruto the question that had been bugging him.

"Naruto, as Hokage I had to become proficient in just about every aspect of being a ninja. I can perform techniques from every element. I can interrogate a prisoner, build a pit trap, command an army and disembowel a man with my fingernails. But I am also an accomplished sensor, and that's why I wanted to talk to you. Your chakra has always felt wild and erratic. It must be, because your seal injects the kyūbi's chakra into your system periodically, increasing your reserves. But now your chakra is calm, tranquil, and controlled. How did this happen? I've met fire monks who have meditated their whole lives whose chakra isn't as calm as yours."

Naruto grinned and rubbed the back of his head.

"Heheh. I remembered what the scroll said about the shadow clone technique, and figured it could be used for training too. Since then I've been using it a lot, look."

The blond held out both hands and started to concentrate. After a few seconds, a gust of wind started to circulate around Naruto's right hand, eventually creating what looked like a weak rasengan made out of wind. After that, water started to coalesce out of thin air and form an unstable globe over his left hand. After a few more seconds he let the chakra flow fade away and the water dropped to the floor, the wind simply dissipating.

"That's all I've got for my elemental training so far. Sensei told me to only practice with shadow clones when I can be sure that I've got the technique for each step perfectly, otherwise my mistakes could become instinct. So he teaches me the leaf cutting exercise, makes sure I know what I'm doing, and then lets me train with shadow clones. It's slower than I could go, but it makes a lot of sense."

"Naruto, that's nothing short of amazing. Hang on, there's something I want to give you."

He got up from his seat and walked over to the bookcase, picking out a slim and faded red volume. He walked back to Naruto and handed it over.

"A Shinobi Performance Manual. I wrote it myself. It contains the uncompromising standards I held myself to when training, but it was too exacting to become required reading. I don't believe in over-specialisation. If a genjutsu specialist fights a Sharingan user, they'll have nearly no chance to survive. Taijutsu specialist against an advanced genjutsu user? Not everybody can learn a thousand jutsus, but you, with your ability to throw out shadow clones, can do it. Take a read. You may even enjoy it."

"Wow, thanks Jiji. I'll treasure it."

"There's no need to go that far. There are other copies, but I appreciate the sentiment. As you know, the Sharingan can sense chakra through walls and bindings, so going near Sakura now may be too much for her. I suggest you create several clones to go home and start reading that book, and your chakra levels should have reduced to a low enough level that you won't cause your friend eye strain."

"No problem, old man! I'll see you soon!"

The knuckle-headed genin moved to leave the room.

"Oh, one more thing, old man. Would it be alright if I visited Haku?"

The Hokage's cheerful face dropped a few notches.

"I'm not sure I can allow that, Naruto. Although you must be hurting, we're still determining her guilt and punishment. She's under supervision at all times to ensure her safety."

"Oh, no, not that. I just wanted to talk to her. It's been really hard, dealing with Sasuke's death, and I didn't even do it. I've no idea how she must be feeling."

The Hokage's smile came back, realising that the boy didn't have the appetite for revenge.

"Well, in that case, I suppose I could authorise a few meetings. No more than a half-hour a day, but maybe it will do the both of you some good."

"Do you know what's going to happen to her?"

"Honestly? It's a toss-up. She ended one of the founding clans of this village, but she also represents the opportunity to give Konoha another bloodline, and it would be foolish to pass on the opportunity. And then there's the fact that she was all but brainwashed by her mentor, and holding her strictly accountable for her actions may not be fair. I don't think she'll ever be allowed to join the ninja forces, but she'll likely be allowed to live in the village, under supervision."

"That sounds fair, but perhaps the greatest punishment of all for somebody who only sees herself as a ninja tool. I'll see you soon."

He left the room, giving a wave to the secretary on his way out. Sarutobi had expressed an intense dislike of people using the window, and Naruto had weaselled enough concessions out of the man today that he felt it only fair to humour him.

When he reached the outdoors he split his chakra eleven ways, forming ten clones who dashed off without needing instruction. He'd been taught some katas by Kakashi in a few styles: the proper Academy style (without the incorrect stances some of the instructors had taught him), the basics of the Strong Fist (although Kakashi said that he'd promised not to teach anybody anything more than the basics) and some of the Uchiha's Intercepting Fist. Naruto hadn't seen the logic in learning a style optimised for the Sharingan, but his sensei had clearly had the transplant plan under his mask since they'd left Wave.

Ten clones with one dispersing every half hour would accumulate around six solid weeks of experience, which should be enough for Naruto's plan to seek advanced instruction elsewhere. Kakashi had warned him that this path would force him to redefine the meaning of hard work, but Naruto welcomed the challenge. Anything to give him the strength to protect.

With his chakra levels somewhat depleted, he went back inside and travelled straight to the clinic. Tenshu was sorting the equipment for disposal and cleaning, whilst keeping an eye on the comatose form of Sakura.

"Ah, Uzumaki-san, here to see your teammate? I'm afraid she isn't quite as resistant to chemical interference as you are; she's probably going to be out cold for a few more minutes. While you wait, would you mind if I had a look at your eye?"

"Do you think I'll be able to see properly yet?"

"Probably. Your healing rate is a blessing, and you should have accepted the transplant already."

The doctor gestured to a chart on the wall.

"Could you please close your right eye and read the chart?"

"Sure. A, O, W…"

Naruto read every letter on the chart, even the ones that forced Tenshu to walk up close and double-check.

"Miraculous, Uzumaki-san. From Uchiha-san's records it would appear that he was only able to read halfway down the chart. Although activating the Sharingan has been known to increase visual focus, this is never seen in the two-tomoe stage, and only rarely with three. Even then, the vision increase is mostly about speed of perception rather than focus. If I may theorise, it appears that your body recognised something that could be beneficial to it and healed it to the same level of visual clarity that your old eye enjoyed."

The pinkette behind them stirred, and the two were interrupted.

"I'll let the two of you speak privately. Please let me know when you're finished."

The medic left the room and Naruto rushed to Sakura's side.

"Hey sleepy. What kept you?"

Sakura's one visible eye narrowed and she feebly moved an arm.

"Damn, I'd hit you if I weren't so weak. Why are you so lively after the operation? And goodness, you're bright."

"Coming from the top scorer in the Academy I'll take that as a compliment."

"Not smarts, you idiot. Your chakra. It's… huge. But pleasant."

"Those control exercises sensei made us do have calmed it down some. And you know I have loads of chakra, how else do you think I keep using shadow clones? Anyway, seems your eye's working."

"Yes, and right after waking up from the operation. Blurry right now, but still. Medic-nins are incredible. I wonder how long it takes to get to that stage…"

"All you need to start is excellent chakra control, Sakura, something we both know you have. If you want to learn and teach me afterwards, I'd be happy to do the same for you with something else."

"Why don't you do it yourself, you lazy bum?"

"I try not to go to the hospital unless I really need to. I'm sure you've noticed how most people don't like me… I doubt many would want to teach me, or let me operate on them."

Sakura's head slumped as she realised she'd brought up some bad memories.

"Well those people are idiots! You're too slow to have any ill intentions; it'd take too much brainpower for you to be evil. If anybody tries to get at you like that again, send them my way and I'll teach them a lesson!"

Naruto was unsure how to take the mixed compliment, so he decided to go with 'thanks'.

"Now that you're better, I'm going to get out of your hair and let you go home. Sensei has given us the week off, and you need to rest your eye. I'm going to see Haku now."

"Her? What do you want with her?"

"I don't know, I guess I feel sorry for her. I know she killed Sasuke, but she had plenty of opportunities to kill me and she just tried to knock me out. I think it was an accident, but she thought Sasuke was at my level when she tried to hit him and he just moved too fast."

"Well you're right that Sasuke-kun was far above your level," Sakura conceded, causing Naruto to face-fault. "But I don't feel sorry for her. She took away our teammate. She deserves to burn."

"And it must be eating her up inside. Not to mention that her reason for living died as well. Now she has nothing to live for, must think she's going to be executed, and who cares? I'm not saying I've forgiven her, but she at least deserves a chance to explain herself."

Sakura nodded struggling to keep her eyes open.

"It's getting late. You should ask Tenshu-san whether you need to go home or to the hospital for the night. I'll be off now, Sakura-chan."

"See you soon Naruto-kun…"

The jinchūriki left his teammate and nodded to Tenshu as he left. The walk from the Hokage's tower to Torture & Interrogation was very short and he made it in a few minutes. He walked through the entrance and past the front desk; however was meant to man it having left it abandoned. He wandered around until a kunai made its way out of the darkness at the end of the corridor and came flying towards his face.

The knife would have merely left a shallow cut along his cheek, but with his new and enhanced perceptions it was a simple thing to tilt his head to the side and snatch the weapon out of the air.

"You're coming dangerously close to the holding cells, brat," came a threatening voice from afar. "Maybe you should be on your way."

"The Hokage said that I could visit one of the prisoners here. He's probably sent word."

A figure burst out of the gloom and came to a rest next to him, grinning like a madwoman.

"Then why didn't you say so?" she chirped, cheerfully snatching her kunai out of his hand. "Name's Anko, you must be red-eyed brat number one. Feel lucky I saw you first, otherwise you'd be brat number two. Where is the other one?"

"Still recovering. May I ask how you know?"

"Oh, the entire village is buzzing about those eyes. Hoshi really can't keep his yap shut about anything. The only reason he's so high up in the hospital is that barely anyone needs eye surgery. The Hyūga all have their own doctors, so he doesn't really do much. Good for the occasional snippet of gossip though, or for threatening."

"I'm fine with you calling me red-eyes, but could you please hold off on Sakura? She might not take it as well as I do."

"Well, that depends on what you can offer me."

"Um, what do you want?"

"Geez kid, your negotiating sucks. You could've at least given me a lowball offer. I'd've argued you up, but it's the principle of the thing. You need to wise up before you get eaten out there."

"Well how about this. You like criticising people and being sadistic. How about you train me?"

Anko frowned and dug her fingers into his shoulder. Hard.

"I'm really not seeing how you're doing me a favour there."

"You get to throw pointy things at me and mess with my mind. I get to learn how to dodge pointy things and resist psychological torture. If you did that to another Konoha shinobi without their consent you'd be court marshalled on assault charges."

"Huh, you have a tongue in your mouth after all. We'll examine that later," she said, with a leer. She loosened her grip around his shoulder. "You're on, brat. Here, six in the morning, before I have to go to work. Then you'll watch me work my magic until four, and I'll beast you some more. You'll learn something and I'll leave your girlfriend alone. Deal. Now, we're here."

She stopped outside a metal door and channelled chakra into a seal.

"No touching, that's my job. That's just about the only rule."

The door creaked open and she shoved him in with a palm strike. As Naruto fell to the floor the door was slammed behind him. The room wasn't too small, but it was dark and impersonal.

"Naruto?"

Haku stood from the small cot in the corner and walked over to him.

"It's really you?"

Naruto let the kunoichi help him up and smiled at her.

"Of course it's me. Why wouldn't it be?"

"It could be a genjutsu designed to make me crack. It could be me hallucinating from dehydration. It could be your sensei under henge here to kill me…"

"Well it's not. Just me, Naruto. How're you doing?"

"But… why are you here? I thought you'd hate me, or at least not want to see me."

Naruto sighed and paced the room.

"My feelings towards you are difficult, but that didn't mean I shouldn't try and see you. You're one of the first people outside my team that I've truly connected with, but you also killed my teammate. But I don't believe you meant to, which doesn't affect the consequence, but maybe it makes it better, somehow. And then there's the fact that you were following the orders of a man who raised you and you worshipped. I'm not sure if I could even hold you fully responsible. In any event, I don't think you need punishing any more. You lost your precious person, as did I."

Haku's eyes started to water and she sat back down on the cot. Naruto followed, sitting next to her, and waited to let her speak.

"I know I just said I was his tool, but that was only because that's what he told me. But secretly, I imagined that he was my father. He was never too sentimental or loving, but he cared for me in his own way. And that's how I loved him - like an imperfect father, who doesn't quite know how to express his love. And I was too weak to save him, so no matter what I was to him, I failed him as both a tool and as a daughter. I don't know what the village is going to do to me for killing the Uchiha, but I find myself not caring. Maybe they'll end my suffering, maybe they'll prolong it. I'll happily accept them ending it, and I'll deserve it if they prolong it."

"Killing Sasuke, that was an accident, right?"

She nodded.

"He moved far faster than I thought he could. Suddenly he became able to react nearly twice as fast."

"That was him activating his Sharingan. So good. I'm glad it was an accident, at least. Haku, do you know what my reason for living was?"

The ice wielder shook her head.

"I wanted to become Hokage so that everyone would respect me and I could protect everyone - all my precious people. And I couldn't protect even one of my teammates. What kind of Hokage would I be? Are you seeing any similarities here? The only difference is, I know that Sasuke's will lives on."

Naruto shifted slightly and his eyes came into view. Haku had stopped looking at her lap as he talked and started to watch him. She caught sight of his mismatched eyes and gasped.

"His eye!"

"That's right. Each of us took one of Sasuke's eyes, just like we took his will. He had a goal to achieve and because we couldn't protect him, he'll never be able to achieve that goal. But that doesn't mean it will never happen. That means that the responsibility for making it happen now falls on us. Me, and Sakura, and you, Haku."

The kunoichi continued to look at him in surprise, tears still flowing slightly.

"You played a large part in this, and the responsibility falls on you too. Not just for carrying out Sasuke's will, but Zabuza's too. He had an ambition, right? A reason that he fought? He wasn't just some bloodthirsty monster, no matter what the bingo books say."

"To stop Yagura… to end the bloodline purges…"

"You see? Neither of us could protect our precious people. That means that we're responsible for making sure that their ambitions are achieved. We need to become stronger and work to make their memories proud. I know you feel like you don't have a reason for living anymore, but that's not true. You just have to live independently of Zabuza now, to achieve his goals. It's hard and it's scary, but if he was really precious to you, you'll live for his sake."

Haku flung her arms around the blond, finally sobbing freely, as he looked around uncomfortably, remembering Anko's warning. Hearing no objectors, he wrapped his arms around her and let her cry.

"Not everyone is going to forgive you as easily, and people are going to be angry. Please be patient with them. If we're going to work together to achieve Sasuke's ambition, then we'll need to be there for each other. And I'll be here for you."

The two talked in quiet voices for the rest of the visiting period, before Anko turned up and booted him out.

"I said no touching, but I guess there's no need to tell the Hokage. I'll just have to be twice as harsh tomorrow," she said, with an evil grin marring her features. "Try not to die."

Naruto trudged back to his apartment, ready for a week of sadistic torture. His clones were dispelling and adding functional knowledge of taijutsu forms to his repertoire as he walked. He could even feel his gait becoming more graceful as he gained a more intimate knowledge of his body and balance. Just as he was turning off the main road and into the residential district-

"Naruto-baka! Wait up!"

Naruto winced at the brash voice, knowing who was coming. He turned around with hands raised, trying to calm her down.

"Hey Ino, what can I-?

"Never mind you, where is Sasuke? My dad said I wouldn't want to hear it but he had to wait for the Hokage's say-so before the general population could know. Is he hurt? Worse - did he start dating Sakura?"

Naruto considered his response as he noted her teammates catching up. Clearly the other two teams had been socialising, as Hinata, Shino and Kiba were close behind Ino's teammates. Three of them immediately took stock of the facts and made the correct conclusions. Shikamaru and Shino were observant enough to see his mismatched eyes, and logical enough to extrapolate from that. Hinata was observant enough, at least when it came to Naruto, and smart enough to jump to a conclusion.

"Geez Ino, you're so troublesome. Clearly Sasuke was hurt, the only question is, how bad?"

"Hey everyone. I'm sorry to be the one to tell you this, and I don't have any fancy words prepared for you. So, yes. Sasuke was hurt on our last mission. In fact, he was killed in action." He waited for the gasps to subside, the only person who hadn't gasped having been Ino. "We completed the mission and came back. The Hokage gave us the opportunity to have a reminder of Sasuke, and carry on his will."

"So Sakura has the other eye?" Shikamaru asked. "I'm sorry to hear that. Sasuke could be difficult, but he was quiet. He wasn't that troublesome at all."

"Yeah, she's taking longer to recover. And she took the death harder as well. Ino, I know you were rivals, but you were friends once too, and I think the two of you might really need each other right now."

The blonde was roused from her stupor and nodded dumbly at Naruto, before wandering off in the direction of Sakura's home.

"Wow," said Chōji. "She didn't hit anyone. It must be bad."

"Sakura will be better for her than us," Shikamaru added. "She needs to talk to another woman. Men aren't useful in situations like this."

"Hey!" said Kiba. "I'd be great at counselling Ino! Shino too, right?"

"The two of them share a closer bond with each other than with any of us. It would be logical to conclude that they are best suited to comfort one another."

"Pah, everyone's a critic. I'm right, aren't I Akamaru?"

The puppy gave a noncommittal bark and flattened itself further into Kiba's hair.

"Fine, fine. But still, that's rough, man. Let me know if you need to talk."

"Thanks everyone, but I really need to sleep first. It's been an emotional day, and I have training from hell tomorrow to look forward to."

He started to set off, but was interrupted by Hinata.

"N-n-naruto-kun?"

"Yes Hinata-chan?"

The timid Hyūga nearly swooned at the affectionate term and was overcome by a blush.

"N-never mind. See you soon." she squeaked.

Naruto waved and finally left, shaking his head over his friends' antics.

* * *

><p>"Rise 'n' shine, pinkeye! I got bored so we're playing early!"<p>

Naruto woke up to realise that he couldn't move, not even to open his eyes. He tried to tense his muscles to escape, but there was no give at all.

"That's a paralysis seal, brat. Thought I'd introduce you to all the toys in an interrogator's arsenal. You can't move an inch, but you still feel just fine. But never mind, the seal will be wearing off in three, two, one…"

Suddenly he could move, and he tried to make a break for it, only to find that he was still restrained. The ropes seemed… cool. And moving.

"Tricks within tricks to make the perps lose their minds before they spill their guts. Give an avenue of escape that you've prepared for them yourself. You taking notes?"

Naruto opened his eyes to see Mitarashi Anko leering above him as he was bound fully by a mass of snakes.

"Gah!" he started, frantically shooting off wind chakra in spurts along his body. It must have done something, because the snakes disappeared in a puff of smoke and Anko started to pout.

"Aww, I didn't realise you were so good with nature transformation. Otherwise I'd have chosen something else. My snake summons are going to be bitching at me for weeks now; thanks a lot. Anyway, rise and shine, time to party."

"Are you at least going to leave the room while I get dressed?"

"Why do you think I'd do that? And whoever do you think I'm letting you get dressed? Your pyjamas are just so cute. I want to see you bleed in them."

When the purple-haired woman started playing with a kunai far too nonchalantly for his liking, Naruto made a hasty escape through the window and out along the rooftops.

"Nice try brat, but this isn't the last you've seen of Mitarashi Anko!" she yelled. "Meet me at training ground 44; I'll see you in a few minutes!"

Against his better judgement, Naruto made his way to training ground 44, easily scaling the fence and looking for an open clearing to wait in. The training ground was a thick forest, with the canopy concealing nearly all of the sunlight. Naruto was naturally able to see quite well in the dark, so he was able to navigate easily, but he could imagine even walking around being a challenge for other genin.

In an instant, the 'feel' of the forest changed. It took Naruto a second to realise that the sounds of animal life had stopped and his danger sense kicked in. With a chakra-assisted leap to the side, he avoided the crashing impetus of a feline paw by little more than a foot. A savage, but regal-looking, tiger was crouched in the position he'd just vacated, with its head turned to glare at him. It slowly turned on the spot and stared him down, waiting for the right moment to pounce.

The blond turned serious nearly instantly, thoughts of light-heartedly finding a clearing and waiting for Anko evaporating. He channeled chakra to his feet and lifted himself off the ground slightly, using the chakra-skating technique to slowly move backwards and make a retreat. The tiger seemed to notice but allow his gradual escape, until Naruto's danger sense screamed at him again and he made another dive. It was just in time, as a gigantic spider landed on the ground, chittering in frustration. It was about two arm-lengths in size and had the telltale glint of poison on its mandibles. Before Naruto could recover, the tiger roared into action and pounced on the tiger, smashing its carapace with both paws and leaving the arachnid a crushed mess. The victorious tiger turned to Naruto, but before it could make any action the area was washed with killing intent.

Zabuza and Kakashi's face-off had been scarier in terms of KI, so Naruto managed to control himself with only a few shivers. The tiger, unaccustomed to the threatening aura, bolted.

"There's your first lesson of the Forest of Death, brat," Anko commented as she made a graceful landing next to the squashed spider carcass. She picked her teeth with a used dango stick as she talked. "Nature is brutal, and it doesn't give a shit about you. If you aren't a predator, you're prey or a parasite. You need to work out which one of the three you are."

The spider, seemingly not completely dead, made a last-ditch effort at finding prey and lunged towards the special jōnin. Without a pause, she flung her dango stick straight through one of its many eyes and halted its jump. The spider fell back, legs crunching together disturbingly as it fell on its back, dead.

"Others will be coming to feed now. I'll take you to one of my favourite training areas. Just watch out for more predators."

The purple-haired kunoichi took to the trees and Naruto followed her for about a kilometre to a clearing with a forked river.

"I like it here. Don't go too close to the water though, the fish are a bit vicious too. So, I got in touch with your one-eyed sensei after you were done 'comforting' the ice princess. He's in disgrace at the moment and the Hokage's sent him out on some simple scouting missions for a few weeks while the storm blows over. I'll be overseeing your training and the pinky's when she recovers. So for this week at least, you're all mine."

Naruto squawked indignantly at Anko's mention of Haku, but reigned himself in.

"I've got a general idea of your abilities from your sensei. He told me pretty much everything. Did you know I went on a date with him once? So no point hiding anything from me because I already know it. He was putty in my hands."

"Your date, was he late for it?"

Anko scowled, her threatening tirade interrupted.

"Yes, as a matter of fact he was late. For our first and last date," she muttered. "So anyway, I hear you're proficient in the Academy style, some Strong Fist and some Intercepting Fist. How good would you rate your taijutsu?"

"Erm, good for a genin?"

"Oh, you see, there's a world of difference between 'good' and 'good for a genin'. It's my job to see which one you are and make sure you end up halfway decent. So put your guard up."

Naruto slipped into the Gōken guard stance and waited for the snake mistress to make a move. She blurred forwards and sent a roundhouse jab into the side of his left arm, completely ignoring the raised fist and forearm that he'd been using to block. Despite trying to defend, her limb blurred with speed and all he could do was move slightly to the side. The attack was laced with chakra and numbed the appendage, leaving it dangling by his side.

"I've been told you heal fast. Well that's good, because my method of training may spill a bit of blood. Snake style is different to the Strong Fist and anything else you've been taught so far. You didn't even see the strike coming until it was nearly complete, did you?"

The blond shook his head, confused and abashed.

"Despite that pretty new red eye you have. That's because Snake style uses continuous motion and alternating angles of attack. I turned my arm angle enough times that the Sharingan predicted multiple outcomes and saw a blur instead of the proper angle of attack. Kakashi talked me through the stages of Sharingan development. Seeing as you got the eye with two tomoe, you're better able to predict future movement, but not nearly good enough to counteract Snake style. With three tomoe you'd do better, but I'd be able to strike faster and keep you confused. That's why your sensei bribed me to teach you Snake style. He said you want to kill the last Uchiha?"

"Yes. That was Sasuke's goal, so it has become mine in his stead."

"Then at least we share something in common - we both want to kill an S-ranked Konoha missing-nin. Now listen up. The viper is the predator that waits in the long grass, patiently waiting for the right moment to strike. It bides its time, coils and tenses itself, and strikes only once with lightning speed and accuracy. Its fangs aren't huge, so it targets vital areas that will spread its poison the fastest - neck, face, groin… It sends the poison into the enemy's body and then hangs back, waiting for the enemy's struggles to hasten their demise. Then it moves back in to eat.

The boa is different, this one waits in the trees for its victim to pass beneath before dropping down and coiling around it. By the time the victim realises the boa is there, it is trapped, and the boa squeezes the life out of it.

The rattlesnake is mellower in comparison, warning off potential threats and blending into the surroundings rather than initiating combat. It has weak venom, so if it does strike it will do so quickly in an incapacitating area and then flee.

What this means is that each type of snake has a corresponding style within the larger Snake style.

Viper style is much like the viper, mainly focusing on concealment and quick, fatal, strikes. You won't telegraph your moves at all, but strike quickly with chakra-reinforced fingers at blood vessels, organs and chakra points, and anything else that will kill quickly. If you can't kill in one strike, you shouldn't be using viper style. Then you retreat until the enemy has bled out. Viper style also concentrates hugely on defence; you need to create a complete defence until you are ready to make your one strike.

Boa style focuses on strong and persistent assault. You use chakra-reinforced grabs at the enemy to crush bones and tear out flesh. It's definitely the bloodiest style, and the tradeoff is that it isn't as concerned with defence. You might have to take a hit in order to make an attack, but it is the best suited for fighting large numbers of enemies at once, when you don't have the time to defend and wait for the one perfect strike.

Rattlesnake style focuses on threat, deception, and concealment. By using killing intent and genjutsu, you can deter enemies rather than fighting them. If you still have to fight them, you can attack while they're shitting their pants from your KI, or fighting each other from your genjutsu. You can then take them down with crippling shots to limbs or senses and hide nearby, waiting for another move. Or you can use this style to whittle down a stronger opponent with hit-and-run tactics, or make a fast escape. As you may be able to tell, this is the style I just used on you and it is by far my favourite.

When you're skilled enough you can blend the styles or mix and match them as needed. I wouldn't worry about that though. Not for a few decades. What I need you to do now is finger-strengthening exercises while I take a clone away and teach it the starting poses for viper style. I'll start you off with that because you don't have the genjutsu knowledge or KI control for rattlesnake style and boa style is too similar to Gōken - I don't want you mixing the styles. We'll run you through the rest of the styles as you get better."

A clone of Anko directed him to a tree where he was instructed to hang from a branch using chakra and his fingertips before doing finger pushups, trying to crush the trunks of smaller trees, and other strengthening exercises. His clone was led off to learn the katas and he slaved on under the grinning gaze of his harsh taskmaster.

* * *

><p><strong>I don't have all that much to say. I like to give backstory and theory to styles and techniques. Oh and let me know if there are any spelling mistakes. This is all first draft and I don't have a beta. But do I need one? The story thickens...<strong>


	3. Snakes and Dogs

I don't own Naruto.

* * *

><p><strong>Two Weeks Later<strong>

BOOM

"You think you can move like a snake? First you have to think like a snake. Now die!"

CRASH

"Hiding behind a tree won't work. I can smell you, pinky!"

SLICE

"Oh, you've moved? More's the pity."

CLANG

Anko drew a kunai and crossed blades with Sakura, who had leapt from a tree, intent on stabbing the snake summoner with her knife. The pinkette moved to lift up her slanted headband, but Anko weaved around her blade and bashed her to the ground.

"Impressive attempt. And you didn't even react to my taunting; so there's improvement there. But I do _not _want to see you using that pink eye of yours. You barely have the chakra to survive a minute of it and I don't want to be responsible if you die of chakra exhaustion. If you die of poisoning, however... Oh, at least you're following the rest of my teaching to the letter. That other idiot thinks he knows better."

"I can hear you, you know!"

"Why do you think I'm saying it?"

Naruto scowled, standing from his position off to the side and walking over to the two kunoichi.

"I don't care what you say, I'm nearly there. Look at my leaf!"

He thrust a healthy green leaf into Anko's face, causing her to slap it away on reflex and let it flutter into a nearby pile of leaves.

"No! How am I meant to train now? But you saw it though, right? The leaf? It crumpled!"

"It was a leaf. A normal sized leaf."

"Aha - that's where you're wrong. It began as a larger-than-average leaf that I crumpled. I made it slightly smaller. I'm nearly there!"

Sakura, having been excused from the conversation, decided to speak up.

"Naru-to! What the hell are you trying to do?"

"The brat thinks that elemental affinities are for sissies. So he's trying to learn to use all five elements. That was his lightning training in progress."

"I managed to stop a leaf from burning! And I made another go withered and flaky. Granted, I'm not all the way there but-"

"You didn't put your leaf anywhere near the candle flame!" Anko interrupted. "And the other leaf withered because you kept it for a week and it dried out!"

"Everyone's a critic…" the blond mumbled.

"Yes, because you're an idiot! You already have two nature affinities, and they're two of the rarer and more versatile elements for this country. So why are you being so greedy?"

"Jiji's book says that anyone can learn techniques from any element and master them if they have the time and skill. I'm just taking it slowly because no-one will teach me exercises for fire, earth or lightning."

"That's because you're a genin, and no right-minded jōnin would teach you anything about nature transformation right now."

"Kakashi-sensei taught me! And he'd have taught Sakura if she wasn't moping on the way back."

"I wasn't moping; I was upset!" Sakura argued. "And I had every reason to mope."

"Moping aside," Anko said. "Kakashi _wasn't_ in his right mind. That's why he was sent away. Hopefully he won't be away with the fairies anymore when he returns."

"Was that a gay joke at my expense, Anko-san?" asked a familiar voice. "I'll have you know that Gai is eccentric, but he's in no way homosexual. And you know better than anyone that I'm as straight as they come."

"Stop wiggling your eyebrows, Kakashi, it was one drink, that you were _late for_, and it ended up in your face. And 'away with the fairies' is a normal, non-sexuality-related phrase. Stop foisting your homophobia onto me."

"Um, oka-"

"Sensei!" Naruto shouted. "Look at my leaf!"

The cyclops took the proffered leaf.

"Um, Naruto, this is a regular leaf. I heard Anko had trained you these past few weeks, but she didn't beat you hard enough to give you amnesia, did she? You could cut through a leaf the day after we left Wave."

"Oh, er, sorry. This is the wrong leaf." Naruto took it back and rubbed his head, laughing nervously. "Still, good to see you back. Sakura was getting worried."

"I was- Ugh. Naruto's been a pain, sensei. You need to teach him something, fast. Anko's restricted herself to taijutsu and he's been driving us _crazy _because of it."

Kakashi eye-smiled and ruffled Sakura's hair.

"Well then there's good news for you. I'm no longer in disgrace, not entirely, and the Hokage has approved me taking you on a training trip. The council were angry at him for giving you Sasuke's eyes without putting it past them, but now they're transplanted they don't want you going out on missions until you're ready to defend yourselves. That means me taking you training, somewhere far away from A-rank missing-nins or anything like that."

"But where could that be? Every nation has deserters," Sakura chimed.

"Not here, I can assure you." Kakashi rolled up his sleeve, bit his thumb, and rubbed some of the blood along a tattoo. "I need you to sign this."

A large scroll, about forearm-length, appeared in a puff of smoke, and Kakashi laid it out on the grass.

"Ooh-hoo, you're in for a treat, kiddies," Anko smirked.

"This is the Hatake family summoning contract. You've seen my nin-dogs before - well, now we're going to stay with them for a while."

Anko raised an eyebrow.

"Well nobody'll think to look there, I'll give you that."

Their sensei rolled out the scroll until they could see blank lines. Hatake Kakashi's name was proudly displayed there, with Hatake Sakumo's faded-out signature further up, and other faded names stretching even further.

"You need to cut a finger and sign here. This will allow you to summon dogs and, more importantly, be reverse-summoned by them."

"Why would we-" Sakura started. "Oh, I see. Now that makes sense."

"What makes sense?" Naruto asked. "Where would we go?"

"Summons don't live in this dimension, Naruto," Sakura explained. "It's somewhere else, with the different countries split by the creatures that live there rather than the elements. The only known way to get there is by the summoning technique in conjunction with a summoning contract, so very few people would be able to get there."

"But I'm one of 'em!" Anko said. "So stay sharp, 'cause Auntie Anko might pop in to see how you're doing at some point."

"Oh god no!" Naruto shouted."Anything but that!"

As Anko chased Naruto around, Sakura calmly made a cut on her forefinger and wrote her name on the contract. A glow of chakra confirmed the signature and Kakashi called over to Anko. She dragged over a trussed-up Naruto, who was glowering at the snakes binding him.

"You know I can escape," he taunted.

"Yesssss, but we got our revennnge, didn'ttt we?" one of the snakes hissed in reply.

Paling slightly, the jinchūriki bit his finger and started to write his name. Partway through the 'k' of 'Uzumaki', his finger healed and he had to bite down again.

"Excellent," Kakashi said. "Now we can begin. Summoning Technique!"

The jōnin slammed his hand to the ground and summoned a single nin-dog. Pakkun emerged from the smoke and greeted them with a raised paw.

"Yo."

"Pakkun, the kids have signed the contract. Can you head back and get the alpha to summon us to the forest?"

"Hai." The summon disappeared as quickly as he'd arrived.

"Now you won't have experienced this before," Kakashi said. "And it may feel a little disorienting. Just rem-"

He was interrupted by the fact that he'd burst into smoke, shortly followed by the two genin.

Naruto felt a gently-increasing pressure on all sides and could see a swirling vacuum of smoke with the sensation of motion. After less than a second, the pressure disappeared, and he was standing under the shade of a canopy in a forest with towering trees.

"Welcome, pups," came a growling voice from the side. Two fallen trees were leaning together to create a shadowed enclosure and a large dog slowly padded over to them. "I am Inuka, alpha of the dog pack. You may have signed the summoning scroll, but you must first face my test if you wish to be a fully-fledged dog summoner. Your sensei never passed this test, which is why he can only summon the one smaller nin-dog pack."

The dog had white fur and looked more like a wolf than a dog. It reached higher than Kakashi and prowled with grace, as though not a single movement was wasted.

"You!" It growled, lashing out a paw at Sakura and only stopping before he would've struck her in the face. She remained motionless, barely reacting to the threat. "You… may have what it takes. You have bravery. But do you have lo-"

The alpha was interrupted when Sakura, curious, felt the padding of the paw still hovering near her face.

"So soft…" she murmured.

The intimidating dog fell to his haunches, goofy grin on his face, and looked to the side coyly.

"Well, I do put a lot of effort into keeping them soft… Don't think this means I like you! But still, I suppose I'll let the two of you summon us without the test. Because you're… obviously ninja of good taste."

Kakashi facefaulted. He'd tried in vain to be able to summon the larger dogs several times along the years, but had failed their stringent tests every time. Apparently they held the fact that he'd once tried to prioritise the mission over the health of his teammates as the worst crime possible, and still didn't think he'd been in penance for long enough. The nin-dogs were fanatical about pack loyalty, something he'd only started to understand as he grew older.

"So what are we going to do here, sensei?" Naruto asked.

"We're going to be training as a team, of course," Kakashi said, smiling behind his mask.

"But how can we be a team with just the three of us? Doesn't Konoha have to have four-man cells for genin teams?" Sakura asked.

"Ma, we'll sort that out. And, for now, I'm going to be teaching you about the Sharingan. In our first months together I didn't teach you directly. I put you through team bonding exercises, because they were the fastest way to improve your combat efficiency and village loyalty. I'm sorry if that made you feel like I was ignoring you." The jōnin glanced at Naruto. "But I've been cataloguing your skills and I've made a training plan.

Sakura. You have excellent chakra control. You have already demonstrated the ability to channel chakra through your limbs to enhance punches. Unfortunately you've so far only used that skill unconsciously to hit Naruto."

The pinkette sent an apologetic look to Naruto.

"As such I will be training you first in genjutsu and healing techniques to exploit your control. As we work we will increase your chakra reserves to allow you better and more sustained use of the Sharingan."

The girl nodded, idly fingering the forehead protector that was slanted over her eye, much like her sensei.

"Naruto. You have changed remarkably since our mission in Wave. I must commend you. Previously your chakra control was awful, although we know that wasn't your fault, your taijutsu sloppy, ninjutsu wasteful, genjutsu non-existent. You were a brawler and a front line tank, hardly an ideal ninja role. But you've improved across the board. Both of you, in fact, flourished under Mitarashi-san's tutelage. So Naruto, I will focus on developing your ninjutsu skills and introducing you to fūinjutsu. You in particular will want to understand this art."

Naruto nodded resolutely, reflexively glancing down to his stomach. Sakura looked interested at the interplay between the two, but was unable to grasp its significance.

"In addition, I will tell you the known history of the Sharingan, and how it develops over time.

There are three tomoe to the average Sharingan, and they are unlocked when their carrier is exposed to great stress. Typically this happens in battle when a ninja is put in a life-or-death situation. Blood and adrenaline flood the eyes and trigger a response from the genetic code; nearly instantaneous evolution. But that isn't the final stage. There is a further level to the Sharingan. The Mangekyo Sharingan. The key to unlocking it is guilt... The grief of being responsible for the death of somebody close to you. It has to be fresh and raw for the evolution to happen. That was one of the factors argued in favour of giving you those eyes; your grief is still strong and I believe you will develop the Mangekyo. These eyes are even more dangerous than ever - they can manipulate the very nature of reality."

"But sensei," Naruto asked. "Doesn't that seem a little overpowered? They're already a scarily dangerous tool, but they can change reality? Why are they mostly gone, in that case?"

"Unlocking the Mangekyo Sharingan was a secret, even to many in the clan. Because the Uchiha were an insular people, partly due to the suspicions of the Second Hokage, the elders didn't want their clansmen killing each other for power. It does seem overpowered. It is. But using the Mangekyo Sharingan degrades the eye. It simply requires too much blood and chakra to flow through the eyes, eventually causing blindness."

"Do you have the Mangekyo Sharingan, sensei?"

The cyclopean jōnin looked off into the distance before replying.

"Yes, I do. And that's one of the reasons I'm uniquely qualified to teach you about it.

Now Sakura, uncover your eye. I'm going to perform a jutsu and you're going to watch."

Sakura flipped up her headband, with Naruto not needing to bother. Kakashi lazily tossed a kunai at a tree before flipping through some handseals.

"Kunai shadow clone technique!"

The kunai became dozens and peppered the tree. After a few seconds the copies disappeared, leaving the original lodged in the tree, with stab marks arranged around it.

"Now I'm not comfortable with you using the regular shadow clone technique, Sakura, because you don't have enough chakra for it. But the extent of this technique is defined by the amount of chakra you choose to put in. Now, I want to see both of you try the technique with the same amount of chakra I did."

Both genin hopped to their feet, Sakura covering her eye again. They repeated the technique and replicated the number of flying kunai exactly.

As the shadow cloned kunai disappeared, Kakashi observed his students.

"Now, did you notice any drawbacks?"

"I had to concentrate to remember the handseals," Naruto said. "I ran through them automatically, so I had to watch my hands to remember the handseals. I did that, so now I know a bit more about how it works, but if I hadn't then I wouldn't know how to adapt the technique for different circumstances."

"That's right, Naruto. Sakura?"

"I... I knew the handseals. And I knew how it worked."

Kakashi's eye widened.

"Do you know how that is? That could be a terribly effective skill if it can be replicated."

Sakura shook her head nervously, the evasiveness not lost on Kakashi. Sakura wasn't going to tell him that Inner Sakura had helpfully told her all about the technique she'd just seen, just like she normally did with any information Sakura couldn't consciously remember.

"So, barring Sakura's surprising talent, it seems that was a success. But it is always advisable to train with techniques before trying to use them again in battle - you'll learn better how and when to use them. Now, as for handseals-"

"Doesn't the Sharingan only work on techniques when the other ninja uses the full sequence of handseals? I read that, with training, you can cut down on the amount of handseals needed, and sometimes not have to use them at all," Naruto said.

"That's true, Naruto, but as the Sharingan progresses to later stages, it becomes better able to puzzle out the gaps between handseals. Of course, when you then reproduce the technique you have to use the full sequence, which just makes training the more useful. Where did you read that? I wasn't aware you were much interested in books."

"Yeah, Naruto," Sakura added. "I thought you were more into physical training."

"I read it in a book that jiji gave to me. He said it was how he trained when he was a genin."

"Sarutobi-sama's training guide? Isn't that a little advanced for... No, he was right to give it to you. He must have a great deal of faith in you. Many ninja have read that book but few have the time to actually take those words into practice. Have you read the part on elemental combination jutsu?"

"Yes, and I didn't understand it. How can you have two types of elemental chakra in your tenketsu at any one time, on top of normal chakra?"

"The Hokage didn't write that down in the book, and for good reason. It was one of his prized chakra manipulation techniques; one of the reasons a shinobi with no bloodline could go toe to toe with the lava or dust release shinobi of Iwa. But Sarutobi taught his students, Jiraiya taught Minato-sensei, and he taught me. He folds his chakra back on itself while in the tenketsu, increasing its density and leaving space for more chakra to occupy it. This can put immense strain on the chakra network and isn't something to be taken lightly. I was never very good at it. Naruto, you might as well try it due to the size of your tenketsu. Sakura, we'll work on other things before getting to that."

The two genin nodded.

"So what now, sensei?" Sakura asked.

Kakashi dangled a bell in front of his two students and smiled.

"You remember this, don't you?"

They groaned.

"But this time there's no trick to it. The person with the bell gets dinner, the other goes hungry. Start!"

* * *

><p>After two months in the summons' dimension, Naruto and Sakura were completely different to the genin they had been before. Sparring for the bells every evening had taught them how to deal with high-speed enemies, and their ability to track movement with both eyes at the same time was back to normal. Despite whomever got the bell by evening, it had become a tradition for the two genin to share anyway, leading Kakashi to cave a little and make the evening meal extra large.<p>

Just as soon as the two genin thought they'd become able to predict where Kakashi was going to move to, he would switch styles and annihilate them. He had a bewildering arsenal of taijutsu styles memorised and, consequentially, so did they now. Even had Kakashi just used one style, he could use his Sharingan to predict how they would predict his movements - that kind of feedback loop meant that the faster shinobi still won every time.

Naruto and Sakura had immediately got on well with the dog clan - Naruto's boisterous nature and Sakura's calm and complimentary manner had inured them to all of the dogs, not just the clan chief.

Sakura had befriended a feisty young pup called Taruko, while Naruto had decided he wanted a companion as well and had taken to bugging Taruko's sister Harumi, who seemed to want nothing to do with the hyperactive blond. The dynamic between the blond and Harumi reminded Sakura of her early relationship with Naruto, but Harumi preferred to run away from Naruto and hadn't yet bopped him on the head.

It was the afternoon and Naruto was trying to find Harumi.

"Ne, Harumi-chan, are you sure you don't want to be my personal summon? I'll give you plenty of ramen!"

"Ramen? How disgusting! Never!"

A bush rustled as the small dog involuntarily blurted out an insult to Naruto's favourite food.

"You don't like ramen? Then you've clearly never tried enough of it! Come here and I'll take you for some."

"Agh!"

The two chased each other around the boundaries of the forest for a few hours, Harumi eventually starting to enjoy herself when she turned the tables on Naruto.

He ran, laughing, and started to pump chakra through his body, accelerating madly. After around five minutes of sprinting at top speed, he stopped to see how his pursuer was doing.

"Harumi?"

He'd just left the forest, and he could now see mountains stretching off into the distance, with a canyon fed by a river not too far away.

She wouldn't have left the forest, so Naruto moved to go back.

"What do you think you're doing here, young man?"

Naruto looked around for the source of the voice, to no success.

"Down here!"

WHACK.

Something collided with his shin, causing the blond to jump back and look down.

A small purple toad with permed hair and a basket of mushrooms was glaring at him.

"Kids these days, always running around fast and never looking down. What's your name, boy?"

"Um, Uzumaki Naruto, ma'am."

The old toad hmmed to herself.

"Well, at least he can be trained," she muttered. "You need to come with me! Trespassing on Mount Myobuku is a serious offence. Are you a dog summoner?"

"H-Hai, I am, but I wandered here by accident. I didn't know this was toad territory."

"That may gain you some leniency, but the dogs clearly... mark their territory and, as a summoner, you should have been able to determine the limits. Either they haven't trained you effectively, or you're here in bad faith. Either way, our clans have a problem. Follow me."

The elder toad hopped down into the gorge, Naruto running down the cliff face as she jumped from outcrop to outcrop. When they landed, they followed the river deeper into the mountainous territory, following a valley's interlocking spurs until Naruto wasn't quite sure of his location. Eventually, the valley opened to a huge lake, surrounded by mountains and toad statues.

"This waterfall is the domain of the Elder Toad Sage," the brusque toad said. "He will see you in his own time. Wait here."

With that, she hopped off across the water, leaving Naruto alone at the side of a lake. The waterfall fed into a small pool of water, but as he looked closer it became apparent that what was flowing wasn't water - it was something darker and more viscous. He leant over to dip a finger in the strange substance, but the ground shook with a sudden tremor and Naruto fell in head-first.

"Gamahiro, what have you done with my sake?" a distant voice boomed, as the tremors abated, clearly as a very large toad hopped away.

As the tremors began to subside, Naruto realised that he could still feel the being's chakra as it moved away. The toad had a massive chakra presence, but

it flowed and eddied gently, like water or curling smoke. It was attuned to the environment around it, and Naruto moved on from feeling the toad's chakra to feeling the chakra that permeated the atmosphere. As he concentrated, he could feel the chakra start to flow into him, until-

"Damn fool child!"

A sticky tongue wrapped around his midriff and hurled him out of the pond. Naruto landed on his head but, strangely, was none the worse for it. He moved to stand up but his right leg flopped uselessly as he put weight on it.

"Argh! My leg!"

His leg had turned into some sort of frog leg, having elongated and thinned.

"Webbed toes!" he wailed.

"Oh, come here, fool child, it's not so bad," the stranger crooned.

WHACK

Naruto nursed his head, the only thing he could do after being struck in the head with a stick.

"Hey, what do y- oh, my leg!"

"Baka. Why were you in the toad oil fountain? You do know that's a sacred monument of Myobuku, don't you? And trying to draw in nature chakra at your age? Sheer idiocy."

"Was that what that feeling was?" Naruto asked.

The toad sighed.

"Yes, you just experienced sage mode, where you balance your chakra with nature and become one with it. Very briefly, you did. I'm glad Ma told me to keep an eye on you; you'd have been like them if you'd been in sage mode any longer."

He pointed at the toad statues circling the lake and frowned at the young boy.

"Each of those statues was a person once. If you lose focus when entering sage mode, the nature energy is unbalanced and you turn into stone. You humans also turn into toads when you try it. These statues are a grim reminder to take caution, and monuments to honour their bravery. You nearly joined their ranks, or would've if we hadn't decided to deliver your granite corpse back where you came from."

A rumble emerged from a nearby cavern.

"That is the Elder Toad Sage," the toad mumbled. "Be polite and answer his questions."

A pressure emerged from the cavern mouth and pressed down on both boy and toad, increasing as the Elder moved ever closer. Just as the pressure reached its peak, the Elder came into view.

"Ah, Pa, are you here to deliver the worms? I've finished all mine already."

"Ah, no, venerable Elder, I bring you this human. He trespassed on our land and Ma brought him here."

"Ah, Uzumaki Naruto," the sage grumbled. "It is nice to finally meet the Child of Prophesy."

Pa looked mortified and tried to settle the meeting.

"Well, this was nice, but I suppose I'll take you back to th-"

"Has Jiraiya brought you here? I always thought he'd bring his pupil's son here, but I didn't foresee it being this soon. Are you here for the Key?"

"What key? The Toad Sannin? And he trained my father?"

Pa groaned and slapped his head, finally losing his temper.

"It wasn't meant to work like this! You were meant to say something vague about him having great promise and then tell him to seek out Jiraiya-child. Why did you have to say all of that?"

"Oh, what was that?" the Sage asked. "I hear something in my cave. I'll be off now."

With that, the ancient elder hopped away, leaving a very confused Naruto with a very annoyed Pa.

"What was all that about? Should we be following him?"

"That was- no, no it's fine," Pa said. "We knew you would come here one day because of the burden you carry, but also because Jiraiya would take you on as his apprentice. You wandered here by chance and we thought we could speed up that process. The Elder Sage just put all that planning to ruins. Here's some advice - ninja need to understand subterfuge. Don't go blowing secrets like that future-addled geezer!"

The toad calmed down and collected himself.

"Okay, here's what you are going to do. When you return to Konoha you are going to find Jiraiya of the Sannin and tell him that Pa says you're ready. We'd summon him here now but he's probably off doing something delicate for his village. I'll see you again when he thinks you're ready to begin sage training."

"Wait, isn't there some sort of test like the dogs had to allow me back here?"

"Normally, yes, but we can't really afford not to have you as a summoner. Bunta might give you a token test but that's just because he's headstrong. Just go back to the dogs and finish your training. Nobody's angry with you; Ma just used that as a pretext to drag you here. I look forward to seeing you again."

Naruto set off on the winding path back to the forest before he remembered to ask.

"Wait, who was my father?"

Pa had already disappeared, leaving Naruto to trudge back alone, questions unanswered.

* * *

><p>"So if I use a triangle rather than a circle, then I can-"<p>

"No, stick to the circle. Do you remember what happened last time you tried a different shape?"

Naruto shrugged.

"It was an experiment. Shadow clones are low risk guinea pigs."

"Somebody else could have been caught in the blast!" Kakashi interjected. "Fuinjutsu is not a forgiving art, and you need to slow down before you put others at risk."

"Ma, sensei, have I not advanced enough to go beyond the baby stuff? Fuinjutsu isn't that difficult; you just need to remember a lot and pay close attention."

Kakashi grunted, peering at the boy.

"If it's so easy to remember, then talk me through the basics again."

Naruto groaned.

"Sealing is the art of storing and directing chakra for different effects. Ninja handseals are a limited way of replicating this process, but there's only so many different poses the human hands can go through; whereas the possibilities for written fuinjutsu are endless.

One major distinction made in the art is between inputs, processes and output. Inputs are usually chakra, ink, or chakra-infused substances like treated ink or blood. Processes are the internal mechanics of the seal, and are further divided into categories. The outputs are varied and depend wholly on the processes, but ninja usually work backwards from the output they want when they design a seal.

Processes can be divided into the main headings of chakra filtration, storage, expression, logistical and otherly.

Chakra filtering seals change chakra from one form to another - pure to elemental, demonic to human, yin to yang.

Storage seals use space-time folding to store objects as intangible chakra constructs.

Expression seals direct chakra into noticeable effects like explosions or smoke. If you've sealed something away, you need an expression seal in order to bring it back into reality again.

Logistical seals direct where and how the other types of seal will work. If you store a kunai in a seal on your wrist, logistical seals make sure the kunai appears in your hand and not embedded in your arm.

Otherly seals stretch the limits of human sealing knowledge. This contains advanced time-space work and contracts with summons races or other beings.

Many seals have parts from all types of seal to function. An expression seal to convert excess chakra into smoke is quite common, otherwise the seal would overload and could become dangerous. Logistical seals can also be used to determine how different seals react with each other.

Seals are written in kanji, but have to be structured using geometric shape principles or the chakra won't flow properly. The most stable shape is the circle, but it is also the least versatile. The fewer edges a shape has, the more difficult it is to use. Then there are advanced shapes such as seals forming other words that can in turn be used as seals, or spirals.

These shapes interact at a macro scale, and most seals are defined by the amount of shapes they have. The more there are, the more stable the seal. Some sealing masters have superstitions about certain numbers, like the Fourth Hokage, who only ever used even numbers..."

"Well that wasn't entirely superstition, Naruto," Kakashi interjected. "The Fourth always liked to build redundancies into his work, so he'd double the number he was already using. Your seal, for example, is eight trigrams. He would've only needed two trigrams to seal the Kyuubi - but he created four backups of his work to account for how corrosive the demon chakra is."

"Okay, well, do I have to say any more? You know that I get it, right?"

"I suppose. Now how is your work on channelling lightning going?"

"Not great. I'm doing fine with earth and fire, but lightning's escaping me for some reason. I can't get any further than the leaf crumpling exercise."

"Well that isn't unexpected. Lightning is between wind and water, your primary affinities, so you're having the hardest time with it. Many shinobi devote their lives to developing only a second element and fail, so don't beat yourself up about it. Hopefully that will be enough chakra for you to be able to use the five-element seal."

"Is it really that useful, sensei?"

"Of course it is. You inject five different types of chakra into an opponent's body and cause chakra arryhthmia. Unless they have all five affinities, and strongly, too, it will interrupt their chakra control and make them all but useless in battle. Now, concentrate on your calligraphy training while I go and check on Sakura."

Naruto held in a groan and Kakashi wandered off.

He walked away from the young jinchūrikki and along the banks of a river to find his female student. Naruto had been coming on dangerously fast. When he concentrated and stopped joking around, he was the spitting image of his father, in both looks and personality. After the incident with the toads, Kakashi had no doubts that Naruto would go far, particularly as he was apparently slated to become Jiraiya's apprentice. It was his other student that worried him. She had come a long way too. She absorbed information like a sponge - far faster than Naruto could. But her problems lay in application. He could teach her a genjutsu and she could perform it perfectly after a few tries, but her chakra reserves and bodily strength was still pitifully low. She had stopped eating like an ant and started exercising, but it appeared that she was simply not genetically disposed to building high amounts of muscle. It wasn't entirely surprising, seeing as she came from a civilian family, but it was depressing. Naruto was surpassing her completely and it was causing tensions in the team.

He turned a bend in the river so find Sakura balanced in the middle, jogging upstream so slowly that she was running in place. He could see the sweat beading on her brow as she exerted all the effort she could, but eventually she lapsed, her chakra ran out, and she plunged below the surface. Kakashi quickly darted under and fished her out, pulling her to the bank and making sure she was awake. If he couldn't solve the Sakura problem, his team would fall apart all over again.

* * *

><p>Naruto was gnawing away on some small woodland creature, while Kakashi and Sakura sat around the campfire, looking a bit more reserved. Kakashi had managed to finish his meal in an instant without taking off his mask, and Sakura was worrying her food. Naruto put down the stripped bone and smiled at his teammate.<p>

"Doesn't taste as nice as when you win, Sakura-chan, but it was still really good. Thanks, sensei! Not as good as ramen, though..." he muttered.

"Ne, Naruto, can I talk to you?" Sakura asked.

"Of course you can. Why'd you ask?"

"No, I mean alone." She gave Kakashi a beseeching glance and the jonin made himself scarce.

"Naruto..." she began. "Have you noticed how you're winning the bell test competitions every night now? It's been a few weeks and I haven't won once."

"Oh, I'm sorry, but you know you'd hate it if I tried to let you win. You know how lucky I am. Remember that random hit on sensei with the mud bullet? Lucky stuff like that seems to be happening more often. I'm just on a lucky streak - you'll get one soon too, believe it!"

"Naruto, that isn't luck. That's you getting more and more skilled. You can use four elements now, of course sensei is going to have trouble keeping up. And now that you can use that chakra folding thing, you've started being able to get him with collaboration jutsu. I can't compete with that."

It was true. Naruto had discovered that, with chakra folding, he could store multiple types of chakra in his tenketsu. If he released them at once, they could combine to make different effects. Mixing fire with earth made for rivers of scalding mud, or fire with water made a steam that could rip the bark off trees and superboil the sap inside. He'd never tried it on a human, though.

"So I'm picking up the training faster than you? There's a first time for everything, Sakura. Maybe you just need to be more patient."

"I am being patient, Naruto, but we've been here nearly three months and I can feel hardly any improvement! I can cast genjutsu and use healing techniques, but I still barely have the chakra to use them consistently or the strength to last in a prolonged battle."

"I… hell, I don't know. What do we do?"

Unbeknownst to them, Kakashi _had _been listening in, and he shared the same fears as his students. He'd come up with a few ideas, but nothing that could-

"Maybe I could make a seal," Naruto blurted out.

Both Kakashi and Sakura stared at him. Kakashi knew that Naruto was capable with seals, but Sakura only knew about the exploding notes and storage seals Naruto had been making.

"A seal? How will that help? It's not like an explosive note or storage seal will help me," she replied.

"A storage seal might work. I could store some of my chakra in a seal, apply it to you, and then have it inject chakra into your system. The extra stress on your tenketsu would widen them, prompting your body to create more of its own chakra. It would hurt, but it might work."

"How would something like that even work? It would probably just make my chakra points explode. It's never been done before."

"Not true, Sakura. It has been done before. In fact, that's the reason I have so much chakra."

Sakura stood up in shock and started pacing.

"You mean you've had this way of getting stronger all along and not told me? Thanks a lot, Naruto, that was really helpful."

"The seal was applied when I was a baby, and I've only just come to understand it. And there's another reason I've been hesitant to tell you…" Naruto trailed off.

In the bushes, Kakashi looked on solemnly. He was going to need to intervene if things went sour soon.

"Do you remember the stories of the Kyūbi and how it was defeated?"

Sakura looked at Naruto with a patronising expression.

"Who exactly do you think you're talking to?"

"Then you should know that it doesn't make sense. Bijū are made of chakra. Even if they're destroyed, they just reform a few years later."

"I assumed that the Fourth sealed it in another dimension or something with his Flying Thunder God technique."

"He did seal it away. But in the only place he could. In a newborn child."

Sakura stared at him with open eyes as everything started to fall into place. The sour looks from the villagers, her mother's warnings when she was a child, Naruto's birthday, the foul chakra that she'd felt on the bridge…

"You?" she stated, more than asked.

"Yeah, me," Naruto said. "The Kyūbi was sealed inside me when I was a child. That's why I have so much chakra. Maybe that's why a seal might work for you."

"Then you-" Memories of the boy's days in the Academy flashed back to her, as she realised that all the scorn she had thought he had deserved was due to other reasons. She hurtled past the fire and wrapped Naruto up in her arms, cradling his head and rocking him back and forth.

"I'm so sorry…" she muttered.

Out of earshot, Kakashi relaxed and stood down from attention. He'd been ready to intervene had Sakura taken things the wrong way. He knew that she'd lost her father in the Kyūbi attack, and could have made the wrong assumptions.

Naruto had his head pressed against her undeveloped chest, and could feel the tears trickling down the back of his neck. After a point in his childhood, Naruto had accepted that nobody would ever feel sorry for his lot in life, and had resolved not to feel sorry for himself, either. He didn't need this. But, as she rocked back and forth, shedding tears over the cruelty of children, Naruto realised that Sakura needed the comfort more than he did. He wrapped his arms around her and reciprocated the hug, ignoring the painful pressure on his neck as she clutched him tighter.

Kakashi gave a wan smile as he gazed at his students. He'd need to keep an eye out on Naruto when he started developing that seal for Sakura, but this interaction had taken a weight off his mind. His fears of having another team fall apart seemed unfounded, at least for now.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Time to respond to reviews. Seeing as I have so few at the moment (cough), I can comfortably reply to all of them. So here are my responses to all both of them.<strong>

**Kamen Rider Extreme: I've already written about 50,000 words of this fic and can tell you that I currently don't intend for the physical element of chakra to be used like KI, or for the spiritual element to be used like reiatsu. But there is a timeskip in which plenty of things happen, so I may factor this idea in after that. Thanks. Honestly, the name is the thing I put the least amount of time into and I will probably change it again to something a little more fitting and original. I got to 50,000 with 'untitled project' so clearly I need to have a think.**

**GeassDragon: You're right that Sakura wasn't ready for the Sharingan eye when it was given to her. I don't believe that it requires so much chakra that uncovering it briefly would kill her, but I take your point. The Hokage thought that the possibility of her obtaining the Mangekyo Sharingan outweighed the costs of her death. That, and he was confident that she could train up her chakra reserves when Anko wasn't training them, and he was unsure whether Naruto would accept the eye if Sakura didn't get the other. He's a real stickler for his idea of fairness and Hiruzen knew that a jinchūriki with a Mangekyo Sharingan would be unstoppable. At this point in the fic Sakura can manage about a minute with her eye uncovered before being at serious risk. Sakura's primary role in the manga is as a healer, but I don't think a genjutsu specialism is too far removed from that, with her perfect control, and Itachi has shown that a genjutsu-using Sharingan wielder is terrifying.**


	4. New Team 7

I don't own Naruto.

* * *

><p>"Team 7, reporting for duty, Hokage-sama," Kakashi chirped, as his two genin started at their surroundings.<p>

When Kakashi had sent Pakkun to reverse-summon them back to Konoha, he'd led them directly to the Hokage Tower, leaving them still reeling over the rapid change in scenery.

"It's good to see you all," Hiruzen commented, giving the team an idle glance. He could sense the most change in Naruto, feeling four well-developed elemental affinities in him. Lightning seemed stunted, but that was neither here nor there. Hiruzen knew the blond wouldn't be satisfied with leaving things as they were.

"As nice as it is to have you all back here, a mission has come up which I think would be ideal to whet your appetites. As an added benefit, there is a new Konoha genin that needs to be taught the ropes of the three-man team system, and I thought you could help her out."

He shouted towards the door, and their new teammate walked in.

"You!" Sakura growled.

Kakashi's eye narrowed, while Naruto simply looked puzzled.

"What exactly are you trying to pull, Jiji?" Naruto asked. "I don't have any problems with her, but don't you think putting her on our team is an accident waiting to happen?"

Sakura nodded along before the Third cut her off with a sweep of his hand.

"This isn't a permanent posting, merely one of convenience. Teamwork isn't only valuable when you are working with friends, but also when you're working with near-strangers, distant allies and even people you experience outright resentment for. Do you understand?"

"We understand, Hokage-sama, would you care to brief us on the mission?" Kakashi asked. "While I'm hardly happy with the arrangement, I can tell you've put thought into it. Can I assume that she passed all of T&I's tests?"

"Yes. Haku-chan derived all of her worth from her utility to her master. Anything done for him wasn't entirely her fault, but she is willing to make amends. As the object of her devotion has moved on, I am willing to trial her entry into the ninja ranks."

Sakura moved to make a complaint, but was silenced by Naruto calmly putting his hand on her shoulder. Hiruzen witnessed the two of them locking red eyes with each other, a silent conversation taking place in front of him. Focusing further, he could sense that they were actually conversing - inside of a shared genjutsu cast by their Sharingan eyes. Remarkable.

The conversation ended and Sakura slid her forehead protector back over her eye.

"This mission request comes from the casino owners of Tanzaku Gai. Over the past month, their takings have been stolen from their vaults without anybody noticing until the next morning. Four casinos have been struck already, each time after their biggest night of the week when they had the most money in their vaults. A high proportion of the Daimyo's taxes comes from the casino cartel in Tanzaku Gai, and I'm under a lot of pressure from the Daimyo to deal with this expeditiously. As a result, I will be sending your team and one ANBU hand. Do you understand?"

"Hai, Hokage-sama," Kakashi said. "When will we meet our accompanying team?"

"Right now. I believe you will know them. Team Ro!"

Kakashi's eyebrows raised as five figures landed in front of the Hokage's desk.

"Team Ro, reporting for duty, Hokage-sama," the purple-haired woman in the cat mask said.

"At ease. You have your orders, now I expect you to leave as soon as you are prepared. Dismissed."

The ANBU flickered away and Kakashi directed them out through the window and to a nearby rooftop. He shared a meaningful look at Cat as he introduced himself.

"Hatake Kakashi, former Captain. I trust you all know my capabilities?"

The entire ANBU hand nodded.

"Then let's do this quickly, Uzumaki Naruto, advanced elemental ninjutsu and taijutsu generalist, Haruno Sakura, genjutsu and medical support specialist, Momochi Haku, ice-bloodline user, typically used as long-range and medical support."

Naruto and Sakura shared a look at Haku taking the Demon of the Mist's last name, but neither were too surprised.

"Cat reporting, Team Ro Captain. Kenjutsu and upfront specialist with sensory and medical capacities. Dog 2 is our ninjutsu expert. Toad is our taijutsu specialist and infiltration expert. Boar is our interrogation member and genjutsu support. Finally Rat, assassination and kenjutsu specialist."

Kakashi nodded, apparently already knowing this. He gave a wink to Dog 2 as he looked at his genin to see if they'd taken it in.

Sakura and Haku had already filed it away, while Naruto was still memorising the masks and abilities. Aside from Cat, who he'd already taken note of, Dog 2 was a burly man rising taller than Kakashi, with pale red hair. Toad had long and straight dark hair with an extremely straight posture - Naruto would bet anything that he was a Hyūga. Boar was a petite blonde woman who looked incredibly impatient with the whole situation. Rat was pale, with short dark hair, and didn't appear to be reacting to any of the other shinobi at all.

"Alright then," Cat said. "Is everyone packed?"

"We have plenty already sealed away," Kakashi said. "Haku, are you prepared?"

"Hai, Hatake-sama."

"Just sensei, I guess. Right, shall we depart?"

* * *

><p>The road to Tanzaku Gai was busy, wide and well-patrolled, so the ninja took to the trees along the side of the road so they could avoid the crowds and go faster. Naruto found that the ANBU had stuck to quite a slow pace and were keeping it up, causing Naruto to race to the head of the pack inadvertently.<p>

"What's up kid, we too slow for you?" Boar called mockingly from behind him. Naruto fell into place alongside her as they leapt from branch to branch.

"Not really, but I thought we'd be going faster than this."

"Maybe you can take it, but it looks like your teammate there appreciates this speed."

Naruto looked back and, surely enough, Sakura was struggling to maintain her pace, considering that they had been going for nearly seven hours.

"Enough bickering," Cat scolded. "Save your stupid contests for when we make camp."

"I can hardly wait," Boar said, in a tone that left a shiver down Naruto's spine.

After a few more hours, Cat called a stop to the procession.

"We'll camp here for tonight so we can arrive early tomorrow morning. The nine of us will split into three watches - me, Sakura and Toad, then Naruto, Boar and Rat, then Kakashi, Haku and Dog 2."

The group got moving, preparing tents and digging a latrine. The ANBU were eating cold rations and didn't bother with a fire, so neither did Team 7. The ANBU had a tent for the men and a tent for the women, while Sakura and Naruto were so used to each other by now they didn't care about sharing a tent. Sakura's worries about Naruto had ended when she'd realised that he was a sound sleeper who didn't snore - indeed, he seemed more manageable asleep than awake - and some of Naruto's apprehension of Sakura had ended when he'd seen her hair sticking in every direction after a night of sleep and spent the night next to her feet.

Team 7 minus Sakura settled down for the night, while the others fanned around the camp. After a perimeter check, Cat addressed the others.

"Toad, make some earth clones to scout the area, then get a vantage point. We'll cover the tents."

The Hyūga nodded and disappeared.

"So Sakura, how does it feel to be the weakest in your team?"

Sakura's first response was to protest, but then she settled down.

"Frustrating, but I don't know what to do. My body just doesn't seem to improve, and my chakra levels aren't getting much higher."

"Girl, that's a problem most of us have gone through. The women who didn't come from clans or ninja backgrounds. The only reason you're having a problem is because your sensei doesn't understand what it's like not to be naturally gifted. Hell, he's probably worked harder than any of us, but he was dealt a better hand in life as well. Still, I'm an orphan from a civilian background. Anko and Kurenai are, but we've all made a name for ourselves. Orochimaru's experiments on Anko boosted her strength. I chose to focus on kenjutsu, while Kurenai focused on genjutsu. And then, all of a sudden, puberty came along and I could fight properly. Remember, you're only thirteen. You might still be going through puberty, but it hasn't finished yet. You'll get stronger."

"I… thank you," Sakura said. "I was worried I'd have to stop being a ninja."

"No chance. You'll find your way. Now, uncover that eye of yours and see if you can spot anything I'm missing."

The two of them scanned the forest in contented silence until the watches changed.

* * *

><p>"So cutie's scared of me in his mind, is he?" Boar mocked. She'd removed her mask to reveal a face startlingly similar to Ino's, as she identified herself as a distant cousin of the girl.<p>

"I'm not scared of you; I'm scared for you," Naruto argued. "You know what's inside my body. Do you really think he'd care that you were an ally if he had the opportunity to eat you?"

Inami's face paled as Naruto grinned in victory.

* * *

><p>"So what's it like living in my shadow?" Kakashi asked, as Dog 2 palmed his face. Rat, in the distance, snickered to himself while he polished his sword.<p>

* * *

><p>"On guard, everyone," Cat warned. "We're potentially in hostile territory, even if this is Fire Country."<p>

The two squads made their way to the largest casino in town, the Opium Den. The title was meant to be somewhat ironic, because opium was outlawed in Fire Country, but it was widely known that big spenders could get access to it inside the casino anyway. Naruto wasn't sure whether that meant the name was ironic or just purely descriptive. They were greeted by a very formal, if smarmy, looking man named Chou.

"Thank goodness you're here, we weren't sure what to do. As it is Saturday, we have our largest take of the week tonight, and our vault is still under repair from the last assault. We're more vulnerable than ever!"

"Do not worry, Chou-san," Cat said. "The thieves have shown that they prefer attacking fresh casinos each time rather than old targets. Although all the other casinos in the area will have hired extra security, yours has the resources to hire the most protection. They will likelier attack a smaller casino tonight, if at all. May we see the vault?"

The man led them further through the casino, where the early-morning addicts were already drinking, or gambling, or in many cases both. The stale scent of smoke assaulted Naruto's senses as they passed the private gambling rooms, until they finally reached the administration area. Chou showed them inside, and it started to look like a normal office building. The path ran through an open plan floor, with accountants working in frenzied silence, occasionally glaring at the troupe of people who were interrupting.

"This is our vault. As you can see, titanium-steel bars to prevent access to the vault door itself, which is fourteen inches of solid steel."

A man-shaped hole had been carved straight through the door, which was the obvious point of exit and entry. The piece of scrap metal was cast to the side, and a swarm of engineers and repairmen were taking measurements and scribbling notes.

"Although this happened last week, all vault doors are custom orders and repairs will take weeks. Please scour the scene and see if you can glean anything."

"Naruto," Kakashi said. "Wind blade. See how far you can penetrate that piece of scrap."

The ANBU hand looked in an approval as a barely-visible sheen of wind came into being around Naruto's arm and the genin plunged it into the discarded metal. He sank about two knuckles deep into the metal before he could go no further.

"I could still cut, but the metal doesn't give sideways. There's no room for me to fit my hand in."

Kakashi nodded.

"I'd have the same trouble with my Chidori. An earth jutsu?" he asked.

"Very few nin have the affinity to directly affect metal," Frog announced. "And, to make such a precise cut, they would have to have the metal manipulation bloodline, the last user of which was apparently killed by the Fourth. I think a lightning or wind jutsu is still likelier."

Cat prowled around the scene, looking for clues. When she could find nothing else she addressed the group.

"We have nine people and ten other casinos in this town, three of which have already been hit. We're going to send somebody to each site. I'd prefer to pick and choose, but my orders are very clear that another attack is not allowed to be successful. We will split up and take one each, Kakashi will take one site and the rest of Team 7 will handle the final one. We will be in radio contact, so as soon as you register enemy nin hang back, contact us, and get support."

The group split to stake out their chosen casinos, with Naruto, Sakura and Haku getting the Will of Fire. Naruto snorted at the name as they entered, all three separating to get a feel for the building.

"Everything on red!" came a slurred voice from the middle of the gambling floor.

Naruto glanced at an inebriated blonde and her long-suffering companion as the ball landed on 17 black. Apparently she glanced over as well, because he was interrupted in his thoughts by a yell of, "Minato!"

He stared for a few seconds as she met his eye. Then-

"Nah, just some wannabe twerp."

Naruto's eyebrow twitched as he studiously ignored the Legendary Sucker, choosing to complete his mission instead.

After a half-hour break, the team reconvened and shared their opinions.

"There's a rear entrance through the kitchens," Sakura noted. "But there are staff cooking all day. The casino doesn't close at night, they just reduce staff."

"There's a secure route for the weekly takings that goes from the vault and nearly directly round back. It's difficult to see from the outside, but they may already have the place scoped." Haku said. The two kunoichi looked at Naruto.

"Well?" Sakura asked.

"They'd have to be idiots to attack here," Naruto said. "One of the Sannin is gambling right now."

As soon as he said that, the lights went out, leaving only the minimal glow of sunlight from the main doors to illuminate things. The casino tactic of reducing windows so that people couldn't tell the passage of time really didn't work in their favour.

"Shit, a day attack," Naruto said. "They must have changed tactics!"

The three darted towards the vault, with Sakura keeping the others informed of their status. Apparently two other casinos had been hit, and the others were on standby until they could identify the real target.

Smoke was surrounding the path to the vault, and Naruto's eyes began to water as they plunged through.

'Tear gas. Not an obstacle to me, but might affect the others,' he thought. Naruto's eyes quickly purged the irritant and his vision cleared again. Sakura and Haku were having difficulties. Naruto considered blowing the cloud away, but then they would lose the element of surprise. As much surprise as a chakra-beacon like Naruto could hope for. Maybe the team would be pre-occupied and not notice him.

When they reached the vault, the gas cleared and Naruto could see a man working some lightning technique, boring his way through the vault door. He was accompanied by two others, with Rain hitai-ate across their foreheads.

'Shit.'

Sakura immediately relayed the information via. radio, but one of the Ame nin must have been a sensor, as she picked up on the transmission.

"There!" she shouted. She lunged towards Sakura at speeds bordering jōnin level and they both plunged into the hallway and were swallowed by the gas. The second ninja, a veritable bear of a man, pulled out a warhammer and jumped into the air, bringing the hammer down in a two-handed grip.

Haku dodged to the side while Naruto merely stepped back, tracing the trajectory of the hammer with his eye. The hammer impacted only a foot away and the vibrations sent a wobbly feeling up his legs. Naruto lashed out with a finger jab to the face, but the large ninja was agile.

"Kirisame, keep them busy, damn it. This isn't easy," the ninja with the lightning jutsu growled. The named ninja nodded and charged at Naruto again, but had to move out of the way of a spray of ice needles. Naruto glanced at Haku, twitching his head to the corridor, and she nodded. He jumped into the smoke to assist Sakura.

"Looks like your boyfriend's jumped ship," the man chortled.

Haku had been trained not to engage with taunts, and simply summoned two ice blades. She flung them at the man, who blocked one with the hammer head and dodged the other.

"You'll have to try better than th-" he was cut off as a needle penetrated his shoulder and he nearly lost grip of his hammer. The needle was followed by another aimed at the femoral artery that came very close to his genitals. He managed to dodge, but was enraged by the attack.

"Bitch!" he frothed.

He jumped again, swinging his hammer up high. Haku dodged to the side again, but the man surprised her by letting go of the hammer and striking her across the face with a backhand. Haku fell to the ground and the man flashed through a series of handseals.

"Earth Release: Earth Spikes Technique," he muttered, just as that side of the room erupted in spikes, completely concealing Haku.

The man using the lightning technique grinned, sparing a glance at the conclusion of the skirmish. As he took the scene in, the technique shuddered to a halt.

"Kirisame?"

The spikes that had erupted hadn't stopped at Haku, piercing the man through the chest, gut, and right leg. And the spikes weren't made of earth.

Some of the ice spikes sloughed away to reveal Haku, who pushed herself up to a crouching position and surveyed the field. She'd been hit by a few small earth spikes before the technique had been concluded with the caster's death, and was cradling a useless arm.

The man at the vault door turned, face twisting in anger, as he thrust his arm out to the side. A sword handle was clutched in his fist and, as she watched, electricity sputtered into existence and surged out of the handle, forming a sword shaped entirely of lightning.

"I worked with him for years, girl. Maybe I can quiet his spirit by sending you to join him in the afterlife."

* * *

><p>As Naruto plunged into the smoke-covered hallway, he moulded wind chakra to his chest and spat a gust of wind at the floor. The wind funnelled the smoke to the sides of the room and then up to the ceiling, where it lingered for the time being. The useful thing about wind chakra was that you didn't need to breathe in to use it; that merely bolstered the technique. With the air full of tear gas as it had been, breathing in too much would have been a mistake.<p>

"Naruto!" Sakura shouted. She was being retrained by a water whip that was wrapped around her upper arm. The kunoichi in control of the whip was lashing out with another whip at imaginary opponents.

"I got her with a Sharingan genjutsu, but I think she's jōnin-level. She'll break out of it soon!"

Naruto nodded and flashed through handseals.

"Water Release: Jet Stream Technique!" he shouted, and spat a high-pressure line of water at the whip the woman was holding. It lost its shape and splattered to the ground, letting Sakura jump away. As the technique ended the woman broke free of the genjutsu and glared at the genin.

"Two against one, eh? How unfair… for you!" she jumped at Sakura, who bent out of the way at an unnatural angle and avoided the punch. The woman turned her failed punch into a handstand, lashing out with her feet. One of the kicks broke past Sakura's defence and knocked her into the wall. Before the jōnin could follow up, Naruto struck with a kunai aimed for the kidneys.

The unnamed kunoichi dove out of the way, avoiding the blade, but still receiving a shallow cut from the barely-visible wind surrounding the blade.

"Wind release? You're a surprising boy. I hear wind release users are rare in Fire Country."

She pulled a scroll out of her jacket, swiped a finger through the blood on her side, and swiped it down the scroll.

"They're about to get even rarer!"

The storage scroll exploded in a fountain of water, and the woman threw the still-spurting scroll straight at Naruto. He was instantly soaked, and the kunoichi ran through handseals.

"Water Release: Pressure Damage Technique!" she shouted, and the water stuck to Naruto's clothes started to squeeze tight. Thinking fast, and really wishing he could use lightning techniques better, he channelled fire chakra to his extreme tenketsu and simply held it there, folding it back on itself. Folding fire chakra more than a few times could cook the body from the inside, but Naruto had the control to fold it back twice. The heat gathered in his skin bypassed his body, which was protected by virtue of his chakra control, and evaporated the water, letting it join the tear gas in the ceiling.

Naruto spared a look at Sakura and saw her in the corner of the room, clutching her collar, as the water technique constricted her clothing too. With a growl of rage, Naruto flooded the same tenketsu as before with water chakra.

"Steam Release: Broken Kettle Technique!"

The chakra burst out of his body and towards the kunoichi, gathering water at it went and turning the steam into a churning funnel of skin-searing gas. The stream hit her and broke her technique with a scream, letting Sakura slump to the ground. The other kunoichi had been less fortunate, the steam blistering her skin and causing serious burns. She moved to perform another technique, but she had breathed in the steam and simply fell to the floor, wheezing for breath. Naruto considered ending her life as a mercy, but let her lie for now, as a source of potential information. He started to check on Sakura, but was interrupted by a flare of chakra from the vault room that felt unmistakably like ice.

"Go, Naruto, I just need a minute," Sakura wheezed.

Naruto nodded and ran for the other room, praying for the best.

* * *

><p>The man threw his hand forward and the sword followed, blasting an arc of lightning at the recovering Haku. An instinctive wall of ice erupted around her and grounded the attack, but the water running from her defences showed that the electricity was able to boil away her wall. As she was about to stand up to retaliate, the blade was plunged straight through the wall and started to carve it apart with absolute ease. Just as he was nearly finished cutting a hole-<p>

CRASH

A wave of water struck the rain nin, washing him away from Haku and swamping the sword. Rather than electrocuting its wielder, however, the lightning blade merely retracted into the hilt, saving its owner from a shock.

"Rokushō Aoi," Naruto snarled. "A-rank Konoha missing-nin. What do you think you're doing here?"

"I see you've read the bingo book, boy. Well, then you should know that you're wasting your time here. You're getting involved with things far beyond you. Take your teammates and go and I might forget this assault."

"We're going nowhere," Naruto said. "You're a traitor and a murderer, and you're coming back with us to face justice."

"Cute, how you think you can do that and all," Aoi commented.

He then lashed out with the blade, lightning spreading from the hilt to Naruto's shoulder in less than a second. Naruto was able to twist out of the way, but he was still grazed by the sword, which cut and cauterised him nearly simultaneously.

Naruto fell into a roll and then flung the downed kunoichi's scroll at him, hoping to soak the man in water.

"Pathetic," he commented, slashing the scroll in half and leaving the contents sealed away. "Impressive, for a genin, perhaps, but a pathetic decision to engage me. No matter."

He plunged the sword into the ground, letting the lightning conduct itself across the sheen of water collected on the ground. Haku was protected by her wall and Aoi by his partnership with the sword, but Naruto was forced to jump into the air to avoid it. He shot out a wind bullet which impacted the floor and stopped the spread of the lightning. It had the added effect of redistributing some of the water, leaving him a dry patch to land on.

He drew a kunai, channelled wind chakra along its edges, and charged the missing-nin, relying on the elemental strength of wind against lightning.

Aoi laughed and clashed blades with Naruto, confident in his weapon's supremacy. Despite the elemental imbalance, Naruto's wind blade was unable to cut through Aoi's blade, and the sword cut through the wind covering and made contact with the kunai, whereby Naruto was jolted by the contact and dropped his blade.

"You see how stupid it is to do battle with the wielder of the Raijin no Ken? As its master I am all but invincible in a kenjutsu battle. You should just give up."

"Master, you say?" came an irritated voice from the hallway.

The blonde drunk from before in the gambling hall was stood in the doorway, arms folded.

"I really don't like people stealing my uncle's toys. I particularly don't like people beating round Konoha shinobi. Don't get me wrong, I have no love for the place, but I rely on the place for my war pension."

"T-Tsunade of the Sannin?" Aoi stuttered, backing away from the imposing woman.

"That's right. Now, give me the sword, kneel on the ground, and I'll consider not feeding it up your behind. Only consider it, mind you," she smirked.

Aoi, realising he was boned either way, made the last act of vengeance he could, activating the Raijin and throwing it at Naruto. Tsunade moved to intercept, but she was nearly on the opposite side of Aoi from Naruto, and it only took a few precious milliseconds for the sword to hit. It took Naruto just under the shoulder, burning straight through and making his blood boil and his muscles convulse from the electricity. The sword was inside him for only a second before Tsunade snatched the handle, deactivating it. Naruto fell to the floor, convulsing, as Tsunade raised the Raijin threateningly.

"Now you're going to get it. Using a Senju artefact on an Uzumaki? My uncle'd be rolling in his grave."

Rather than speak, Aoi simply extended a finger and pointed at the handle of the Raijin. Tsunade's eyes followed his finger's path to see some of Naruto's boiled blood - it had apparently splattered onto the sword's handle. Tsunade flexed her hand and could feel the telltale stickiness of blood between her and the handle.

"No..."

"Yes. Hanzo knew all about your hemophobia. He was a strong and kind man, and that's why I'm doing this for him."

He snatched the Raijin from Tsunade's unprotesting hands and activated it.

"Killing a Sannin... Something my master never got round to doing."

He brought the sword full swing in an executioner's arch, but as the lightning blade was about to meet Tsunade's neck, it fizzled out.

"Huh..?"

And that was when Naruto struck. With his blood he summoned the pack of nin-dogs, who bit down on any sensitive areas they could find, before Naruto directed triple-folded fire chakra to his hand. With a mighty heave, he stood up, ignoring his useless left arm, and plunged his right straight through Aoi's torso. It cleaved a clear path through his lung and out through the other side, boiling his blood and then cauterising the wound. Nearly exactly the same effect as the Raijin had on Naruto.

"Payback's a bitch," Naruto said, as Aoi's body slumped to the floor.

Losing interest in the dead traitor, he took note of Tsunade's insensate body to the side and took pity on her, washing the nearby blood away with a gentle water technique.

"Hey," Naruto shouted, slapping her across the face. "Get back in the room, all the blood's gone."

The legendary kunoichi slowly came to, eyes focusing on the gristly hole through Naruto's shoulder. She flinched, but the wound was cauterised and wasn't bleeding.

"Your arm! We need to operate straight away," she started.

"Don't worry, I have somebody on it," he said, as the Kyūbi's chakra started to flow through his body and heal him. The burnt flesh sloughed away as it was replaced by new, and Naruto's aching muscles repaired themselves.

"That's- then you really are him!"

"Huh?"

"Minato's son!"

"Wait, you mean, as in the Fourth Hokage, Namikaze Minato's son? You're aware that I'm an orphan, right?"

Tsunade apparently realised her blunder and clammed up.

"Oh no no, I'm not letting this go. Not after what the toads said too. Did Jiraiya train the Fourth?"

Tsunade dumbly nodded.

"Why, those sons of- people knew, but they just let me rot as some anonymous orphan, hated by all the village? Some fucking testament to their hero."

"It was to protect you from Minato's enemies, make sure you weren't kidnapped by Iwa."

"And letting your hero's child get thrown out of the orphanage at age four is one of those measures meant to protect me? Sounds like a pretty crappy idea to me."

Naruto scooped up the Raijin and moved to walk towards Haku's ice wall.

"Wait, that's a Senju clan artefact, you can't just take it."

"And who would I give it to? You? You who cut ties with Konoha fifteen years ago and haven't visited since? I'm securing this weapon for my village, and if you want it back I guess you'd better take it up with the Third."

He activated the Raijin and sliced through Haku's ice wall, leaning through, lifting up the beaten kunoichi and body flickering to the corridor. Sakura was already standing, having overcome the lightheadedness associated with strangulation.

"Report," Naruto barked.

"Minor bruising, lost consciousness briefly. I'll be fine. Now let me see to her," Sakura said, accepting Haku's unconscious body and glancing at the vault room.

"Did I see Tsunade of the Sannin run past?" she asked.

"It doesn't matter," he said. "She isn't related to this mission."

Sakura wonder at what had put Naruto in such a bad mood as she healed Haku's broken ribs with shaking hands.

"Naruto, Sakura!"

A disheveled Kakashi burst into the room, closely followed by Team Ro.

"Two other casinos were hit with three-man jōnin teams," Cat reported. "What happened here?"

"A-rank Konoha missing-nin Rokusho Aoi and two jōnin-level Rain nin were here. Aoi was in possession of the Raijin no Ken, and was using it to melt through the vault door. We engaged and killed two of them, with the one over there left alive for questioning."

Naruto gestured at the scalded kunoichi lying feet away. Boar moved to stabilise her, realising that everyone else was being attended to. It was at that moment that Tsunade chose to appear.

"Team Ro, Kakashi, fancy this."

"Tsunade-sama," Cat breathed. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm after that sword the blond brat is hoarding," she said. "It's an artefact of my clan."

"It wasn't so important to you when it was being used to rob casinos just down the road from you, was it? But now you've seen it you want it, just like an entitled little brat!"

"Now now, Naruto," Kakashi said. "Stealing isn't nice."

"Neither is interrupting an A-rank mission and putting the life of Konoha shinobi in danger. Are you going to let that slide too?"

"What exactly do you mean?" Kakashi asked. "Because, yes, I would take that very seriously."

"Tsunade appeared out of the blue as I was engaging Aoi. I was making slow progress, but hadn't pulled everything out of my sleeve yet. He was toying with me, so I was playing on that so that I could quickly use one of my advanced techniques and end things. When he saw one of the Sannin he panicked and immediately went for the kill, piercing me straight through the shoulder with the Raijin." Naruto gestured to his still-healing injury. "Instead of trying to correct her mistake by defeating Aoi and healing me, Tsunade froze up and was about to be killed by the missing-nin. I was forced to fight through a debilitating injury to prevent her from being killed as well. Considering the fact that I killed the missing-nin in possession of the Raijin, I consider it Tsunade's fault that I was injured by the damn sword, and the Uzumaki being related to the Senju via. Uzumaki Mito, I decided to claim the sword for Konoha and let Hokage-sama decide what to do with it. This woman has no claim on Konoha's artefacts, considering her recent record for loyalty to the village."

Kakashi took in Naruto's rant calmly before turning to Tsunade.

"Is it true that you endangered my student's life, Tsunade-sama?"

Despite being an S-rank ninja, Tsunade started to sweat a little at the expression Kakashi was managing to convey with his one eye.

"My hemophobia is well-documented," she began. "I was attempting to help. It isn't my fault I was caught by surprise-"

"No. It is solely your fault you were taken by surprise," Kakashi interrupted. "Hanzo of the Salamander keeps extensive notes on all shinobi of interest, and it's ridiculous to believe that a Rain nin would not be aware of your weaknesses. You are free to do as you wish when the only person at risk is you, but throwing yourself into a situation you aren't competent in, and endangering Konoha personnel, is simply reckless. Possibly treasonous. Please remove yourself from the scene before you make any further mistakes. If you wish to take possession of the Raijin no Ken you will have to visit Konoha and take it up with Hokage-sama yourself."

Tsunade looked ready to argue, but merely shot Naruto a bitter look and slumped away. Cat gave her previous idol a look of disbelief, and Sakura and Haku looked ready to maul the woman after hearing Naruto's story.

After she was gone, Cat addressed the group.

"A very well done, Team 7. Our apologies that we only got here so late, but there were other Rain nin attacking, as well as interference teams to prevent us from getting here. Now, let us deal with the bodies and explain our mission completion to the client."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Nothing to report. Time to respond to some more reviews.<strong>

**Link0011: I couldn't up and abandon the toads. But this story isn't going to be kind to Jiraiya, so prepare yourself.**

**Fate's Pride: I think that was you saying that you'd rather just Naruto and Sakura entered the Chūnin Exams as a twosome, but I couldn't pin down whether it was that or them finding a third member for the exams which annoyed you. As this chapter hopefully shows, there's a potential candidate for a three-person team. While Naruto and Sakura could do fine in the exams as they are, the exams aren't so much about individual progression as getting as much exposure to potential clients. That's why I find it unlikely that the Hokage would authorise anything less than three people in a team, unless one member was so deficient that they'd cause other, promising, members to fail before the individual stages.**

**Dave: You commented on Chapter 1 but I'm assuming you're referring to Chapter 3. Yes, he very briefly touched Sage Mode, but wasn't ready for the nature energy. As you've seen, there's a filler mission here that I wanted so we could meet Tsunade, and there's another chapter before we reach the Chūnin Exams.**


	5. Inheritance

I don't own Naruto.

* * *

><p>The journey back to Konoha was a strained one, Naruto quietly thinking, Sakura giving him his space, and Haku following suit despite not knowing what was happening.<p>

As they reached Konoha, Team Ro wished them well and dispersed to make their report to the Hokage ahead of Team 7. Kakashi took his students the long way, walking through the streets of Konoha, and Sakura was no longer blind to the looks of anger and disgust levelled at Naruto.

When the team found themselves in front of the Hokage's office, the door was already open.

"Come in, Kakashi," the Hokage called.

The team entered and assembled themselves around the Hokage's desk. Every member of the team had a solemn expression, as did the Hokage.

"An A-ranked missing-nin, Naruto? I'm impressed. And giving my former student a tongue-lashing too, sometimes I feel like doing the very same thing."

He managed to tease a wry smile out of the boy, but Naruto quickly squashed it and moved back to his contemplative expression. Kakashi covered elements of the mission that Team Ro hadn't been privy to, and all three genin gave their individual reports.

"Hokage-sama, may I speak to you in private?" Naruto asked.

The old man nodded, dismissing the other three ninja.

"So what's on your mind, Naruto?"

"When I met the toads, the toad sage let slip something about my father. He said that Jiraiya had trained him."

Hiruzen paled, fearing what would come next.

"And then, when I bumped into Tsunade, she called me Minato by mistake, before admitting that he was my father."

"I see," the Third mused. "So, what now?"

"What the hell? What the hell were you thinking? Putting me in an orphanage with people who hated me, and knew I held the Kyūbi, under the auspices of my protection? Your law didn't stop people from hating me, it just stopped people my age from knowing why they should hate me, and they just filled in the gaps themselves. The fact that people didn't know who my father was only protected me from external threats, not internal. And anyway, the fact that I'm a jinchūriki was so widespread I was at threat of assassination or kidnap from other nations anyway. Please, just give me a reason to believe that what you did was right!"

Sarutobi sighed, his age showing as his face drooped.

"Naruto, I have many reasons why I did the things I did, and they all seemed like the best decisions at the time. But there is no escaping the fact that I failed you, and hid things from you. Minato wanted you to find this all out when you reached chūnin rank, and I decided to honour his wishes. Obviously, he foresaw a different future for you. He wanted you to be seen as a hero, not the monster people came to see you as. When the Kyūbi was sealed, well, I wasn't in my right mind. My wife was killed in the attack, I was comfortably in retirement, and then Minato died and I had the mantle of Hokage thrust back upon me. I knew that Minato was too optimistic - the villagers wouldn't see you as a hero. He loved this village so much, I think he was somewhat blinded to its faults. He vested far more power in the council than I ever did, and it's taken me the past thirteen years to dismantle it to a manageable level. I passed that law in a token effort to protect you, and then fought my hardest to adopt you, or have you adopted by one of the clans. But the council blocked all moves to have you adopted. Why allow such a concentration of power in one clan? You were put in the orphanage as a temporary measure while I fought for your custody, but the fight lasted so long that you fell in-between the cracks. I got constant reports saying that you were doing well and, damn me, I believed them. When I stumbled across you at five years of age, going through the bins for food, I hated myself. The stipend for your apartment doesn't come from the village; I couldn't get the council to approve that. I've been paying for it myself, because it is the least I can do. And when I saw you start playing pranks, I finally saw you enjoying yourself, and maybe I let it carry on longer than I should have. I let you stay behind in the Academy because I didn't want you to have to face the harsh realities of ninja life too soon. Considering that you already knew the realities of life, I thought that I was being merciful. Now, I just think I was being foolish. I… all I can say is that I'm sorry, Naruto."

Naruto's face softened as he fought to keep control of his emotions.

"I think I understand Jiji, and thank you for everything you've done. I guess I can't really blame anyone, except maybe my dad for being too much of an optimist. Did he leave anything for me?"

"The Namikaze weren't a clan, so only his personal accounts and effects. The bounties he recovered from the war made him a wealthy man, and I've made sure to keep the interest building in his accounts. Your mother, Kushina, was the sole heir of the Uzumaki clan, and most of her assets are tied up in the village - Minato convinced her to invest them for the good of the village. Still, those rights fall to you as well. The Uzumaki clan were the ruling body of the Land of Whirlpools as well, so I suppose she was a princess as well as an heir. Still, Whirlpool is sadly gone now, and here we stand."

"So I'm royalty? That's pretty cool. What about this?" Naruto asked, gesturing to the Raijin at his hip.

"Well normally it would go to the village armoury, but seeing as you recovered it, I suppose you can keep it."

"Thanks," Naruto grinned. "But I meant the Senju clan in general. The Uzumaki are related to the Senju through Uzumaki Mito, and it's not like Tsunade deserves anything from the village."

Sarutobi hummed.

"All of the Senju clan's liquid funds have probably been spent by Tsunade over the years. Her gambling skills are atrocious. But we aren't doing anything with the clan grounds or properties. Tsunade isn't going to have children any time soon, so we need to do something with them. Why not? I'll formally recognise you as the Senju heir, entitling you to their properties."

"Thanks, Jiji," Naruto grinned. "This isn't going to mean I have to do anything weird like have multiple wives, does it?"

Sarutobi cocked his head back and looked at the genin with narrowed eyes.

"That's… nice wishful thinking, Naruto, but not a requirement. As an heir to several clans, you are allowed to take multiple wives, but it's in no way mandatory. Clans with sole surviving members receive significant tax allowances and preferential service allowances if they take multiple wives, but that's just an encouragement. No need to be concerned. Now, I believe you need a D-rank for your team today, and I have just the thing…"

Naruto groaned as he was sent to muck out the Inuzuka kennels once again, leaving the Hokage alone, chuckling in his office.

"Upstart little brat. I'll give him three years. Then this paperwork is his damn problem!"

* * *

><p>Naruto leant back and made a wide slash with the Raijin, channelling chakra into the blade as he did so.<p>

"Your movements aren't refined enough, but you used just the right amount of chakra," Kakashi idly commented, as he sidestepped a speeding arc of electricity. "Your control is the closest I've seen to perfect. I'll call in a favour with a friend and get you some training in kenjutsu. I've taught you just about all I know, but I only practiced kenjutsu when I was younger. How's Sakura doing?"

"I don't know. How are you doing, Sakura?"

The pink-haired genin was running across the river that ran through their training ground, steadily getting faster.

"Better, Naruto," she shouted, without missing a beat.

Kakashi nodded and disappeared.

After her conversation with Cat, Sakura had started asking around older kunoichi to see if they could help with her weak build. Anko had snorted at the problem, citing Kakashi's utter uselessness with women for the reason that the problem hadn't been sorted earlier. She recommended a course of supplements and steroids to bolster her development.

"But they aren't too strong, otherwise they could interfere with your puberty, not just advance it," Anko said. "These will just make you speed through it a little faster."

Sakura was slowly gaining muscle tone and chakra reserves, and becoming a more able member of the team again. Her excellent control and skill in genjutsu, combined with her added chakra, had resulted in her ability to layer minor genjutsu over each other to a level that baffled Naruto. He was still able to immediately interrupt his chakra supply to escape them all, but only if he noticed if he was in a genjutsu. Making believable starter genjutsu that stopped the target from ever being aware that they were in an illusion had become one of Sakura's specialties, and Kakashi regularly farmed her out to Kurenai for additional training.

It had been two months since their mission to Tazuna Gai, and the shockwaves had finally settled. Haku had managed to integrate herself into the team. Naruto's warm acceptance combined with Kakashi's easygoing nature had worn Sakura down, who had come to see the difficult circumstances of Haku's upbringing and empathise.

Haku was still specialised in long-range support and had mostly focused on increasing the speed at which she could summon ice from the atmosphere and developing her speed. Speaking of that-

"From the right!" Sakura shouted, as a dark-haired blur leapt from the trees and attempted to sucker punch Naruto. Without pause, Naruto twisted and threw the arm to his side, flipping through seals with one hand as he turned.

"Water Release: Bludgeoning Balls!" he shouted, before shooting out football-sized orbs of water that shot towards the assailant. Haku slowed down enough to be visible to the non-Sharingan eye and batted the balls to the floor with a chakra-covered hand. She drew a series of ice senbon from the air and flung them at Naruto's limbs.

"Wind Release: Concussive Force!" he shouted, as a brief blast of air blew the needles into dust.

"Just what I needed!" Haku shouted with glee, as she shot through handseals. "Ice Release: Demonic Mirror Restriction!"

Mirrors coalesced into being around Naruto before shrinking down and binding his limbs. Just like the ice from her normal demonic mirrors, these bonds were hard to break, and immediately reformed if broken. Naruto struggled, pumping fire-natured chakra out of his tenketsu, but Haku's mirrors held strong. If he were to triple-fold it or try something more dangerous he might have been able to escape, but jutsu that dangerous were a poor move for a training exercise.

"Alright, you win Haku. Will you let me out now?"

The Yuki clan survivor nodded, making a seal and letting the ice disperse into dust.

"You made it too easy for me, Naruto-sama," she said. "Your wind and water chakra was perfectly balanced. It was a simple thing to combine the two to make as much ice as I needed.

Sakura made her entrance from the river and made her presence known.

"She's right, Naruto. Skilled shinobi will be able to use residual natured chakra to make their techniques easier. You're unlikely to come across anything like what Haku's capable of though," she said. "Most jōnin don't have the control over their elements that Haku does, and sub-elemental techniques are nearly impossible for anyone without a bloodline. The exceptions seem to be you and the Three Pillars."

The Three Pillars of the Old World were the oldest and most dangerous shinobi currently alive. They'd carved their way into the books of history, and the Five Nations still hung in a tenuous balance provided by the three. Sarutobi Hiruzen, the God of Shinobi and Hokage of Konoha, Hanzo the Salamander, Leader of Ame, and Onoki of Both Scales, Tsukikage of Iwa.

All three were S-ranked, possibly higher, as nobody had had the nerve to directly attack any of the three in more than twenty years. Even Orochimaru, when Sarutobi had driven him from Konoha, had chosen to flee rather than fight. Konoha and Iwa were old rivals, made even worse with Namikaze Minato's slaughter of Iwa's Eighth Division in the war, killing over a thousand Earth shinobi. Rain Country provided a buffer between the two nations and had been the scene of several skirmishes. Any recent attempts by smaller nations to warmonger had been put down by the reclusive leader of Rain, who was able to rout whole armies singlehandedly.

Other, smaller, nations had sprung up between the Rain, Earth and Fire countries to act as even further buffers, as tensions ran high between Hanzo and nearly every nation. Each buffer nation was usually under the protection of one of the big five, with outposts of trained ninja or their own hidden villages supported by the larger nations. Why?

Because war was chaos.

Even Hanzo, the bloodiest of the three, had been content to rest in his smaller country and avoid overt conflict. Any foreign ninja found in his borders were killed, that was his rule. And, like anybody trying not to rock the boat, most nations had respected this.

"I thought I'd find you here," came a drawling voice from the road into town.

"You're late!" Sakura shouted, making their sensei face-fault.

"Well I... Actually I just nipped off about five minutes ago, you just weren't paying attention. I was off... getting you these!" he brandished a sheaf of papers, smiling at the three of them.

"Uh, sensei, we don't know what they are, so we don't know why you're so happy about them. What are they?" Naruto asked.

"Oh, they're just entry forms for the chunin exams," Kakashi commented. "I mean, you don't have to if you're not interested."

"What? No way! Of course I'm interested! Isn't it great, Sakura-chan, Haku-chan?"

"I'm happy to follow you in this if it is your desire, Naruto-sama," Haku said.

Kakashi winced at the honorific, and Naruto looked a little uncomfortable. Saving her from Aoi's attacks, combined with some transference of her feelings for Zabuza, had cemented Haku's nearly-obsessive loyalty for Naruto. Kakashi didn't mind that much, because having a deadly and beautiful bodyguard for one of his genin just made the chances of losing another team member lower. But her hero worship would have to be brought to manageable levels, lest she do something drastic like kill a villager for insulting the boy.

"I'm not sure," Sakura mumbled. "I've come a long way, but haven't the other teams as well? And there will be genin who've been through this several times. Won't we be at a disadvantage?"

Kakashi smiled and ruffled Sakura's hair.

"The three of you have nothing to worry about. I've observed the other rookie genin teams and they're nowhere near your level. Despite that, they've been entered into the exams as well. As a team you've proven able to take down three jonin with inferior teamwork, and you won't be facing anything near that level of competition in the exams. It's a team exercise until the end, Sakura, and if you then feel unable to continue individually you can forfeit. There's no shame in that, but the previous two rounds will give you invaluable experience."

The three genin nodded and accepted an entry slip each.

"In two days at the academy building," Kakashi said. "Don't train until then. Take tomorrow and the rest of today off. Maybe do some team bonding."

With that, he disappeared.

"So what do we do now?" Naruto asked. "I have clones off reading books and doing some training, but sensei told us not to train. Anyway, it's nearly lunchtime. Ramen?"

"I'm not eating ramen again," Sakura growled. "We're going somewhere else."

"But you know what other places are like," Naruto said. "They might not let me in."

"I will deal with them if they do that," Haku grinned, looking like she was about to commit a homicide.

"There's no need for that," Sakura said, waving her arms in front of her. "Just follow me."

Sakura led them to a barbecue place and glanced in through the windows.

"It's good. Follow me."

The three walked through the front door and Sakura led them to the back of the store. As they turned a corner they saw Asuma and the rest of his team eating fried meat, or, at least, Choji eating fried meat and the others sneaking in mouthfuls edgeways.

"Excuse me. He," an attendant muttered with malice. "Is not welcome here."

"Asuma-sensei," Sakura shouted out. "Is it okay if we join you?"

Sarutobi Asuma lazily glanced at the trio, eyes flickering towards the attendant, before looking back to her.

"That's fine. Ino's been looking for somebody to complain about Shikamaru to. I trust that won't be a problem, Garu-san?" he said, staring at the attendant.

"Bu-" the man collected himself. "If you will take responsibility, Sarutobi-sama, then that is acceptable."

"I will. Now another order for these three please," he glanced at Chōji. "Eh, make that seven."

"So Naruto," Shikamaru drawled. "What was that all about?"

Naruto considered his options. The Nara was usually too smart to fool, but if he bored him enough…

"Ne, I probably pranked him some time back. I mean, there was this one time when I switched the flour at the market with sugar, maybe he still remembers that, hehe," Naruto lied.

"Pfft, troublesome," the shadow-user commented, before moving to start picking at his food again.

Asuma looked at the blond approvingly. It wasn't an easy feat to pull the wool over Shikamaru's eyes.

"So our sensei entered us into the chūnin exams. Did you know they're being held in Konoha? We're going to be chūnin before you know it, forehead," Ino taunted, finished with her meal.

"We're in the exams too, pig. And we have two A-rank missions to prove we belong there. Can you top that?"

"Now now now girls, let's not fight. We've had a few C-ranks and that's all we need to enter," Asuma interjected. "There's no point overachieving and putting ourselves in danger just to look good."

Naruto suppressed a snort. From what the Hokage had let slip whenever his son was brought up, overachieving had never been one of Asuma's concerns. Despite that, he was still an elite jōnin. Whether it was Sarutobi natural aptitude at work, or something else, Naruto didn't know, but the man was skilled.

"We just want to get some experience and do our village proud," Chōji said between mouthfuls. "Oh, the next course!"

Sakura, Haku and Naruto got plates laid in front of them, while the other four went in the middle, where Chōji monopolised them.

"So what sort of exercises has Kakashi been putting you through?" Asuma questioned. "After all, your team probably needs a lot of trust exercises and group manoeuvres to be effective."

Naruto and Sakura shared a look, while Haku looked distinctly uncomfortable.

"We're fine as a team, Asuma-sensei. Any trust issues we may have had have been dealt with," Sakura chirped.

"Why would you have trust issues? I know that Sasuke's gone, but Haku-chan seems pretty cool."

"She sure is! Funnily enough, that's just the word I'd use to- Hey!"

Naruto slapped at Chōji's chopsticks as they tried to sneak a piece of grilled pork from his plate. Chōji didn't want to give up and accelerated to bewildering speeds to try and catch Naruto out. Fortunately, Naruto's two-tomoe eye was more than enough to track the speed of Chōji's chopsticks. Naruto disarmed the boy and sent the utensils flying at his head.

"Leave off, Chōji, I'm hungry," Naruto snarked.

Chōji's eyes widened and he puffed his cheeks in surprise.

"Hooooohh Naruto-san, that was truly a splendid display. Very few are able to best an Akimichi in a chopstick duel. Your sensei must be training you very well indeed."

Sakura laughed behind her hand as Naruto grinned.

"I guess he is. We kicked his ass in gear and now he's taking this sensei thing real seriously."

"So I've heard," Asuma said. "He talks a lot about you three. You could swear it was pride you can hear in his voice."

"Well I'm not letting Naruto-baka and Forehead-chan best me. We're training right now. Shika, Chōji, up!" Ino shouted.

"But Ino, I'm not finished," Chōji whined.

"Oh just stuff it in your mouth and let's get out of here. It was very nice to meet you, Haku-san," Ino said.

"Likewise," Haku said. "It's good to know that I am… cool."

Asuma and his team made their way out of the restaurant, with Team 7 following closely behind.

"So, no training tomorrow, so do you want to do something else?" Naruto asked.

"What else is there in this village?" Haku asked. "It seems like the ninja mostly just eat or drink in their down time."

"Well there's that, or there's cliff jumping, ANBU baiting, swimming, exploring the forest or annoying Jiji. Oh, and there are my properties; I haven't explored them yet."

"You own land?" Sakura blurted out.

"Yeah, Jiji gave me the Uzumaki shares in the village, but they're all investments. But it turns out that the Uzumaki are related to the Senju, and you saw Tsunade - there's no chance of her coming back or having children. He decided it was better that a more distant relative got the properties rather than let them go to waste, like the Uchiha clan has."

It was true. With the only living Uchiha a traitor to the village, their clan compound lay completely unused. Sasuke had opted to live in an apartment outside his clan compound, not wanting the constant reminder of his family's murder, but had frequently ventured back to train or read from the extensive Uchiha library. The Hokage was yet to do anything with the land, but several clans were vying for the property. Most notably the Hyūga, whose clan compound was far smaller, and who believed that they deserved one of the largest compounds in the village.

"Just like the Uchiha place, the Senju compound is on the edges of the village. The Uchiha had their compound far out because they didn't entirely trust the Senju when the village was founded. The Senju compound was placed far out so as not to make the Uchiha feel too ostracised - if the Senju lived right in the centre, the Uchiha might feel marginalised. The compound is up past the Hokage Monument, in one of the forests."

"Oh, I've seen that place," Sakura started. "The walls are huge; I thought that was an outlying part of the village wall."

"No, apparently that's the clan wall. One side is built into the village wall. Since on the other side of that wall is all mountain and lake, people rarely try to attack from that direction. Other than the Kyūbi, of course."

The three genin looked a little sombre at the mention of the mightiest tailed beast. Both Haku and Sakura were aware of Naruto's burden; Sakura having been told directly and Haku working it out from the energy he'd released on the bridge in Wave.

"I see it!" Haku said. "It is most truly befitting a man of your status, Naruto-sama."

"Geez, Haku-chan, could you just call me Naruto? You're making me feel like a prince or something. Oh wait, I totally am a prince! My mother was a princess!"

"Stop making things up, Naruto," Sakura said.

"I'm not! My mother was the last descendent of the ruling clan of the land of Whirlpools. That makes her a princess, and me a prince."

"I always knew it," Haku said. "Now you simply need to ascend to the throne."

"Well let's not go that far," Naruto said. "We've got this to check out right now, anyway."

The clan compound was bordered by a wall as tall as the one surrounding the village, made out of intricate pieces of interlocking wood. The pieces were locked in so tightly that Naruto couldn't even get the blade of a kunai in-between the links. After walking the full perimeter of the wall, taking a good twenty minutes, Naruto stopped to consider.

"I'm such a dummy. Why didn't I realise?"

His Sharingan had been scanning the wall just as his normal eye had been, but it had missed something.

"The interlocking wood pieces - they aren't random; they form a seal!"

He checked further along to see if he was right.

"One gigantic seal! There's a repeating pattern, but the overarching design - I can only guess at what it's for."

"So why did it take you so long?" Sakura asked.

"Indeed. You are usually quite sharp, Naruto no Kimi."

Naruto sighed. It seemed that Haku was really going to treat him like a prince.

"The Sharingan couldn't pick it up. Which is odd, because it's usually great for memorising seal designs. It isn't as good with written seals as it is with handseals, but it can still categorise them and make them easier to pick apart. This one doesn't register to the Sharingan at all. It would make sense, as the Senju probably didn't trust the Uchiha as far as they could throw them. Still… how? It could be the Mokuton. Or maybe part of the seal itself…"

"Back up, baka. How do we get in?"

"Oh, that. Proof. It just needs proof I'm a Senju. Place has been locked down for years."

With that, Naruto slashed his hand open with a knife and flicked the blood at the wall. The wall lit up where the blood landed and white energy crawled its way through the seams in the wood, illuminating the seal pattern. With a surge of energy, the pieces of wood unfolded themselves and wove their way back to form a doorway wide enough to fit through two people abreast.

"Fantastic," Naruto breathed. "And that's just the doorway."

"I don't see why people couldn't just climb over it," Sakura deadpanned. "Why the need for all the fancy magic work?"

"The wood is alive with chakra, Sakura-san," Haku said. "I'm sure you'd notice if your eye were uncovered. It will likely prevent chakra sticking to the surface, or attack somebody trying to climb."

"Enough analysis," Naruto said. "It's time to explore! I'll take the far side, Haku-chan can take the middle, and Sakura-chan can explore the area around here."

"So you're effectively saying I'm the slowest, aren't you?" Sakura asked.

"Catch me if you want to prove me wrong!" Naruto mocked, as he disappeared in a swirl of leaves.

"I've really got to learn that," Sakura moped, as Haku patted her awkwardly on the shoulder.

"Indeed you do," she said, before disappearing in a cloud of frozen mist.

* * *

><p>Visibility is limited while in a shunshin, so Naruto only got a vague understanding of the parts of the compound that he passed. The body flicker was a technique to accelerate the body to ridiculous speeds in a simple direction, and had been amongst the many genius inventions of the Second Hokage. Most shinobi could only travel in a direct line, stopping for obstructions. Senju Tobirama, as well as Uchiha Shisui of the Body Flicker, had been able to travel great distances in single leaps, and use the technique many times in succession while in battle. Normally, shunshin wasn't an effective battle technique for anything other than retreat, because an enemy shinobi could see the beginnings of the technique and simply hold a sword or kunai in the direction of the attacking ninja, letting the other person impale themselves. The two masters of the body flicker had been able to navigate around such obstacles while still moving at those incredible speeds, relying on their unconscious mind to direct them. Taking the technique to such levels was an aspiration of many ninja, although few had ever achieved it. Until the Fourth Raikage and the Fourth Hokage had made their names as the two fastest ninja alive, the body flicker had been the fastest way to travel. Hands down.<p>

So it only took Naruto ten seconds to reach the far wall of the Senju compound, something that should have taken about a fifty minute walk otherwise. Even using his Sharingan eye, the surroundings had been little more than a blur. It gave him an increased recognition of the skills of the Second Hokage, who was easily the most overlooked of Konoha's four past leaders.

The interlocking wood wall continued where it met the city wall, providing a second line of defence. But there was also a staircase built in that led to the top of the wall and a little observation deck to look out towards the mountains and lakes that bordered this side of Konoha.

This area seemed to be the most secured, and housed Tobirama's research areas. The paranoid man had wanted to build literally as far away as he could from the Uchiha, even taking that mindset with him into their clan fortress. The central building was a library rather than a laboratory, and showed that Tobirama's research had been more literary then scientific. There was a significant clan clinic on the grounds, no doubt where Tsunade had first proved herself a capable medic, but that was overshadowed by the Senju library.

It was built like a rotunda, with light stone columns circling and supporting the structure. Naruto noticed another security seal as he entered the library, but it eased away and let him pass when his hand met the door. On the inside, bookcases were stacked against the walls to form an octagonal shape, with the occasional walkway passing in front of the shelves. The spiral staircase in the middle continued far upwards to a reading room. As he traversed the library, Naruto wondered how some of the books could even be accessed. Not all areas had walkways to let you reach the books, some were surrounded by cages made of metal and wood, and others were simply suspended in the air with ropes, with no obvious way to access them.

Naruto made his way to the reading room at the top, where the accumulated knowledge of two kages and the strongest clan in the Elemental Nations awaited him.

"I have a lot of reading to do," he muttered.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: I'm doing NaNoWriMo this next month, so ordinarily that'd mean I'd be pressed for time. But, after this, there are five more chapters until the timeskip. And I've already written them. So I'll release them throughout November and work on my own stuff. I might not be as active in responding to reviews, but I'll keep posting.<strong>


	6. Cursed

I don't own Naruto

* * *

><p>The trio gathered around the entrance to the Academy.<p>

"Everybody ready for this?" Naruto asked.

The two others have terse nods of assent, both anxious for different reasons. Sakura was still conscious of the fact that she was physically weaker than most of her peers, while Haku didn't want to fail and hinder her teammates' progress, particularly Naruto's.

They made their way up to the second floor, where groups of milling genin were watching an altercation between a genin in a hideous green jumpsuit and an unremarkable Konoha nin. The genin was thrown back and told he wasn't fit for the exams, as he slunk away with his teammates. Naruto noticed they immediately walked upstairs, to the real third floor. His eye had picked up the illusion immediately, and his teammates picked up on it through experience of genjutsu, Sakura's eye being covered and completely unnecessary.

As they made their way to the third floor, they heard the brash voice of Kiba telling the disguised chunin to drop the genjutsu and withheld groans.

"You there!"

Naruto stopped as he was accosted by the green-clad genin from before.

"You are my sensei's eternal rival's genius student, are you not? I must spar with you!"

"Oh, Lee-san, was it?" Naruto said. "Yeah, we don't really have time for this, do we? Maybe this would be better some other time."

"Ooooh! I see your sensei's hip attitude has rubbed off on you! But I will not be denied this chance to spar with a genius!"

Sakura sweatdropped at that proclamation, just as Lee jumped into the air and attacked with a spinning kick.

"Konoha Whirlwind!" he shouted.

Naruto had been tracking his movements and, familiar with the Strong Fist style, ducked under the kick and swept Lee's leg when he landed. The boy was wearing something that felt like solid steel leg guards and Naruto winced as he connected, but powered through. Lee lazily took the hit, flipping around in mid-air and throwing a debilitating strike towards his opponent's forearm. Naruto slithered around the strike and slapped out at the arm with a chakra strike to the bicep. The hit connected and Lee winced, but he was otherwise undeterred.

"That's crazy, he's still attacking with the same arm," Sakura said. "That was like a juken strike - he shouldn't be able to channel chakra there at all."

"Lee is unable to use chakra at all," the pale-eyed teammate said. "Juken strikes affecting his internal organs are the only way to stop Lee. He has so little chakra that he relies solely upon muscle strength, so cutting chakra to his limbs slows him down none."

"I'm Tenten, and he's Neji," their other teammate supplied.

"I'm Sakura, and this is Haku. Wow, they're still at it?"

Lee and Naruto had continued sparring while the others had been talking. Naruto had worked a lot on his speed so that he could keep up with his Sharingan, but he was under no false pretences - without his eye he would have been utterly slaughtered by the other genin.

"Yosh, that is fantastic Naruto-san," Lee panted as he leaned out of an eardrum slap. "You are truly a worthy rival!"

"I could say the same about you, Lee. Your strength and speed are fantastic. And I hear you don't use chakra?"

Lee nodded and jumped back, falling out of a ready position.

"Hai, that is correct. Thank you for the spar. I had considered using my forbidden technique, but you treated me with respect, and I would not want to cause either of us serious injury. Shall we do this again sometime?"

"I'd like that, Lee," Naruto said. "Now let's get to the exam. Gai-san allowed Kakashi-sensei to teach me the opening kata to the Strong Fist, but I can clearly see there's a lot more to learn to use it properly in combat."

The two teams made their way to the exam room, where Gai and Kakashi were waiting for them.

"Fighting, Lee?" Gai intoned, seriously.

"Just a spar, sensei," Lee mumbled. "I wanted to see if your eternal rival's student was also a genius."

"And what did you find?" the teacher asked, voice filling with an ominous rumble.

"That he uses both his genius and hard work. His first Goken movement speaks of months of practice."

"Lee!" the man cried, enveloping the boy in a hug. "You have found your own eternal rival! I could not be prouder! How do you defeat a genius who understands the value of hard work?"

"You must work even harder!"

"Lee!"

"Gai-sensei!"

"LEE!"

Neji turned away from the two as their hug turned into a sunset.

"I work hard..." he mumbled.

"Glad to see you're not taking everything seriously," Kakashi smiled at his team. "And it's good you're all here together. You can only pass this part of the test as a team."

"We should've known you'd have another teamwork test before we could get here," Sakura said. "Any advice?"

"Just be yourselves. And trust in each other. Now, I've got to get going. Hikari, you've been a naughty girl..." he muttered, as he whipped out a little book and wandered off.

The six genin walked inside the room, only to meet a collective killing intent from most of the room's members. The other two rookie teams were there, reacting to the aggression differently. Kiba was the worst affected, as he was mouthing off to try and claim a high pack position.

"So the loser's team arrives," he boasted. "How long are you going to last here, dobe?"

"Huh, you say something Kiba?" Naruto asked.

"So hip!" Lee shouted, surprising the others.

"You lot might want to calm down if you don't want to paint a target on your backs," a silver-haired teen cautioned, as he got up from his desk and walked towards them. "I'm Kabuto, and these people can be pretty brutal towards annoying people."

"How old are you, thirty?" Kiba asked. "How many times have you taken the exam?"

"I'm seventeen," Kabuto glowered. "And... yeah, this is my seventh exam. But the good thing is that I have data on nearly all of the participants. Ask me about anyone you're interested in."

"Naruto, the eyebrow guy, those creepy Rain guys and the ones with that weird symbol," Kiba said.

"Ah, it's harder when you don't use names. I like that."

The boy shuffled through a deck of cards.

"These are my ninfo cards, I have the skills of hundreds of shinobi recorded in them. I just channel chakra into them and... Voila, Uzumaki Naruto. B-ranked Konoha genin? Interesting. 28 D-ranked missions, 2 A-ranked, with his defeat of an A-ranked missing nin during. Heir to the Uzumaki and Senju fortunes and wielder of the Raijin no Ken."

"I'd appreciate it if you were quieter with that information," Naruto said. "As we're all Konoha nin I don't mind, but..."

"Oh of course, Uzumaki-san," Kabuto said. "Rock Lee. Non-ranked genin, 146 D-ranked missions, 12 C-ranked. Teacher is Might Guy, Konoha's resident taijutsu master, and he is the sole other practitioner of the Strong Fist style. Unable to use chakra... Wow.

Next, the three Ame ninja. I don't know their names, but the one wearing a rebreather is a water ninjutsu specialist who focuses on area control and concealment jutsu. The one with the umbrella strapped to his back is a wide area-effect ninja, and that umbrella can shoot out hundreds of senbon. The girl is a genjutsu specialist with medical training. Effectively, one turns the battlefield into a swamp and hides, one confuses the enemy with genjutsu and leaves, then the last one blasts the area with ninjutsu and weapons, while the first one mops up any survivors. Not a particularly novel combination, but an effective one.

The Sound ninja are from a new village hidden in the Land of Rice. Since they're Sound's first batch of genin, they're probably pretty weak-"

"Hey!" One of the Sound nin had stood up and was walking towards Kabuto with purpose. He wore a metal gauntlet that was studded with holes and punched with it towards Kabuto. The older genin stepped out of the blow's range, but ended up still doubled over, blood trickling out of his ears.

"Nobody insults Sound. Nobody. We're going to mop up these pathetic exams and show everyone our true strength."

"Dosu, sit back down, you've made your point," the sole girl on their team pleaded.

"It's fine, I want all of these tree hugging fuckers to know the truth. The truth is th-"

"The truth is that if you don't sit back down right now I'll throw you out so hard you'll be back to your precious Sound before you can even say 'chunin'"

The jonin proctor finally entered the exam room, flanked by five chunin.

"This is my portion of the exam and my word is absolute. I am Morino Ibiki, and I will be your torturer today. There will be no physical violence. There will be no talking. There will be one sheet of paper for each of you and ten questions. You will answer nine now and I will ask the tenth at the end. You will be issued ten points each. You will lose one point for each wrong answer and one point if you are caught cheating. If you are caught cheating three times you and your team will be failed."

He paused, waiting until the chunin proctors had passed out all of the exam papers.

"You all have your papers. Any questions?"

"Yeah," an Iwa genin blurted out. "Why d-"

"Iwa Team 2, disqualified," Ibiki interrupted. "I said no talking. Any more questions?"

The room was silent as the Iwa genin and his teammates were escorted from the room.

"Good. Then you may begin."

The sound of pencils scratching filled the air as the amassed genin started to work. Naruto scanned the test paper, brow furrowing at the questions. They were hard. Perhaps impossible. Many required specific and detailed knowledge that he doubted a standard chūnin would have on them. Some required subjective judgements that depended on other factors not stated in the question, making the right answer impossible to determine. He looked around. Nearly everyone was as puzzled as he was, other than three Konoha genin he didn't know and Sakura. Figures.

Sweeping his eyes over the three genin, his Sharingan picked out a few details his normal eye had missed - smudges of makeup here, striped clothes to make them look shorter than they would otherwise, hair dye slightly running due to sweat... AH! They weren't genin. They were chūnin plants, here with the right answers. This was a test about cheating, not about knowledge. The fact that cheating wasn't an instant disqualification gave that away.

Without even needing handseals, Naruto created a shadow clone. The technique had been the first he'd bothered to master (funnily enough, by making shadow clones create shadow clones who created shadow clones...) and he could now project and then condense his chakra anywhere within a hundred feet. The clone he conjured just outside the window lived a short life before it hit the ground and exploded, but that was the signal.

With the clone's memories transmitted to all active clones, the ones he'd made before the exam sprang into action. Clones transformed into small geckos, insects and squirrels stormed into the room to perform their assigned tasks. Naruto clones looking like nondescript ninja walked into the bathrooms and occupied stalls.

The normal henge could be recognised by a skilled enough shinobi. It merely cast an illusion over the body and could be detected like any other genjutsu. Naruto's clone were different. A shadow clone was the condensed chakra of the user, in the user's shape. A kunai shadow clone is the chakra of the user, in the shape of a kunai. Both were very real until they dispelled, and the only way a ninja could tell a clone apart from Naruto was by destroying it.

So he'd experimented. Now he could form chakra constructs of other people, animals, and weapons, nearly as easily as clones of himself. A shadow sword may not have been good for prolonged combat, but if he was without a weapon and saw an opportunity, he could summon one into his hand and go for the kill. The other uses were even more diverse. A gecko is not as intelligent as a human. Not close. But by providing a somewhat-similar copy of his brain, shrinking it, and then making a shadow gecko, Naruto could perform limited, unobtrusive, reconnaissance.

The geckos swivelled their eyes and peered at the fake chūnin's tests. They were still filling them out, but one was one the eighth question. A few of the geckos dispelled and Naruto received the memories of the questions. His shadow creatures could also be made with one Sharingan eye, as it seemed to be a real part of him now. The photographic memories of those Sharingan were still in full effect.

He looked over a Sakura, who seemed to be doing fine, before glancing at Haku. She'd worked it out as well, and was using subtly-placed ice mirrors to try and view the chūnin's tests, but it wasn't going so well. He sent a brief spike of killer intent towards her, which she reacted to instinctively. When their eyes met, Naruto caught her in a genjutsu.

In Haku's point of view, Naruto simply stood up, walked over, and placed a mostly-completed test in front of her.

"Memorise these," he said. "They're the answers from those chūnin plants over there."

She nodded and quickly burned the answers in her memory before looking back up at her teammate. He had disappeared, was back in his seat, and she could feel the light touch of his chakra gone from her system.

'Now for some fun,' Naruto thought. The geckos all dispelled, at which point the squirrels and insects made their move.

Perhaps slightly vindictively, the squirrels went for some of the Rain nin, the others seeking out the strongest-looking foreign ninja. A squirrel climbed up the loose trouser leg of one Kumo ninja and bit him on the inner thigh.

"Ow, what the f-"

"Kumo Team 4, disqualified," came the vicious bark of Ibiki.

Some of the stronger ninja identified the threats, stamping them out before they made contact. Still, three teams down.

Then the bugs attacked. None of the Konoha ninja were affected, but some of the other nin were stung and bitten in awkward places. One Rain nin was stung in the neck and then heard the insect buzzing away. Rather than catching it or using any ninja grace, he reflexively slapped out and managed to strike Tenten in the face.

"Physical contact. Rain Team 1 disqualified!"

Shino got some dirty looks by the Rain team as they were escorted out, and Naruto ended his assault on the competition. He'd checked Sakura's paper and she'd managed to correctly work out the answers to the questions he'd copied, and he assumed everything else was right.

"Everybody, pens down. This is the end of this part of the test," Ibiki said.

"Sand Team 3, disqualified. You were still writing."

The man cleared his throat.

"Now comes the final question. Before I ask it, you may quit right now and there will be no penalty."

The room was silent.

"However, if you choose to take this question and get it wrong, you will be banned from the chūnin exams forever. I'm sure you're wondering how this is possible; other teams must have taken this question and gotten it wrong before. Well I tell you this; this is my first year as proctor, and you're damn unlucky to have me. Anyone who wants to quit now may do so. Any questions?"

Naruto was dying to expose the flaw in the man's logic. Kiba was dying to shout at him for such a ridiculous rule. But both of them kept their mouths shut, knowing what happened to people who actually tried to ask questions.

A third of the remaining genin were led out, and after a two minute period whereby nobody forfeited, Ibiki sighed.

"I guess this is it. No more dropping out. Well, I have this to tell you; you all pass!"

The room broke out into murmurs.

"Yeah, it's as simple as that. As you gain rank, you gain responsibility, and the difficulty of your missions increases accordingly. There can be unforeseen mission parameters, rogue nin, information asymmetry between you and the client... and you will have to make the decision whether to go ahead or whether to cancel your mission. Cancelling your mission may make you look weak, and affect your village's reputation, but you will live to fight another day. If you go ahead, you face uncertainty, even death. Don't feel superior to the people who forfeited. I could have just as easily decided to fail all of you and pass the people who forfeited. If this was a mission you just undertook, you got lucky and survived. You could have easily been unlucky, and dead. This," he lifted up his forehead protector, showing a horrifically scarred head. "Is the price of a mission gone wrong. I was tortured for five days on a mission gone sour. I learnt a lot. Eventually, I paid things back threefold." He grinned. "Now your-"

He was interrupted by a purple blur crashing through the window. Four kunai shot out of the blur and embedded themselves in the wall and ceiling, supporting a banner.

"Super sexy single second exam proctor, Mitarashi Anko, reporting for duty!" she shouted, causing Team 7 to groan.

"Don't you groan you little shits!" she yelled. "You're meant to be supportive! Hey guys, these are my super cute apprentices. Any genin team who can bring me all of them, restrained but not killed, has an automatic pass for the second stage of the exam. Safe zone is just outside training ground 44. See you all there!"

She disappeared, causing a lull as everybody took in what had just been said.

"Get 'em! A random Grass ninja shouted, and everyone blurred into action. Naruto body flickered over to Sakura and hoisted her over his shoulder before turning to Haku, who'd already knocked an unknown Konoha genin unconscious. With a shared nod, they both disappeared in the body flicker, leaving the room in disarray.

"Well you heard her!" Ibiki barked. "Get lost before I start disqualifying people!"

* * *

><p>Team 7 were the first to arrive at the Forest of Death, where Anko was waiting with a grin.<p>

"Thought that'd drive a firecracker up your arses," she said. "You need to celebrate what an awesome teacher you have, otherwise you'll hurt my feelings."

"Yeah, sure sensei," Naruto deadpanned. "I noticed you didn't chew Ibiki out for letting nearly half of us pass."

"Well it's better than I was expecting. He's a sweetie, really, but he brought out the big guns for the exam. I'm so proud," she sniffed. "Anyway, how's it going with Snake Style?"

"I'm getting better," Sakura said. "I'm starting to grow muscle tone while keeping my flexibility. Naruto's cutting speed for strength."

"Hey, you make it sound intentional!" he moaned. "The stronger I get, the harder it is to condition myself for flexibility. Might Guy doesn't need to be able to do backbends..."

"That's because his style emphasises crushing strength and he's mastered it, twerp," Anko said. "Anyway, he can, too. What about that wind thing you were working on?"

"Oh, you'll see if you keep watching us," Naruto grinned. "You'll enjoy it."

"Alright then. They're mostly here. Listen up, brats!" Anko shouted. "You're going to sign this waiver if you want to continue in this exam. It states that if you are injured or killed, Konoha is not at fault. And some of you will be killed. All three team members signing a waiver gets you a scroll. These scrolls come in two forms - heaven and earth. To complete this task, you must reach the tower in the centre of the forest with one scroll of each and then open them together in the foyer. These scrolls simulate secret materials you've been assigned to deliver, so no reading them! You have five days to get the right scrolls and reach the tower. Leaving the forest will result in disqualification. All three team members must reach the tower at the same time and alive. When the gong sounds, you will begin. The second gong you hear will mark the hour before the exam is to end. The third gong will mark the end. Anybody still in the forest at that point will be escorted out by ANBU. I think that's it; anything else is up to you."

"But how do we get the other scroll?" Kiba asked.

Anko stared at him, then cast a beseeching look at Shino. The stoic boy bonked him over the head.

"Thank you. I'm not going to answer that idiotic question. Now line up for your scrolls."

The genin formed queues to sign the waivers and get the scrolls, then they were led to entrance gates around the forest.

After about ten minutes of waiting, the gong was struck and the gates flung themselves open.

"Hard right!" Naruto shouted, and the team immediately ran along the inside of the forest boundaries, following the wall to get to the nearest gate. After about a two minute sprint, they found the next gate.

The team was from Rain, and were clearly stuck and arguing about something.

"You saw him, though? And heard that silver-haired guy? He has Aoi-sensei's sword."

"That means nothing," another said. "He could just have another Konoha artefact. They have enough of them."

Team 7 squatted in the trees while they observed the team. Sakura cast one of her subtle genjutsu over the team, making them oblivious to their surroundings. With a nod to Naruto, she watched as he dropped to the ground and plunged his hands to the earth. The forest floor liquified and turned into a swamp, drawing the Rain genin down until only their heads were visible. Naruto slipped entirely underground before reappearing with a scroll clutched in his hand.

"Easy enough. And now we have both. What shall we do with these guys? Should we kill them?"

"We could just throw them out of the forest," Sakura said. "They'd be disqualified."

"No," Haku said. "You heard. One of them wanted to hunt down Naruto-sama. For our safety, they need to die."

"I think you're right," Naruto said. "But Sakura, you've never killed before, have you?"

The kunoichi shook her head.

"I think it's best that the first time not be in cold blood," Naruto said. "I'll deal with it."

That said, he sent a vicious kick at the heads of each ninja in the ground, breaking their necks.

"It was a good genjutsu Sakura, they didn't feel a thing," he commented. His teammate looked a little pale. "Might as well see what they have on them," he mused.

They recovered the bodies and stripped them of equipment, even though they were all well-stocked. Now that Naruto could seal items, there was no excuse for travelling light.

Their objective complete, they made haste to the tower, avoiding ambushes with their above-average perception and skirting around other teams. They were more than three quarters of the way there when-

"Dodge! Inbound jutsu!" Naruto shouted.

A burst of wind drove through the trees, halting their motion and blasting Haku, who'd been in midair, away. Naruto and Sakura had been able to secure themselves to branches with chakra.

"Kukuku... Both so skilled. You remind me of a younger me."

One of the Grass ninja from before strutted into view, smirking at the two genin.

"Sakura, uncover your eye. This guy means business."

"Guy?"

"Yeah. It's some type of concealment. I can't see through it, but I can smell him. Definitely male. And... snakes. I think it's Orochimaru."

"So clever," the voice from below said. "A pity knowing who I am doesn't help you in the slightest."

The missing nin peeled off the skin concealing his face, revealing the pallid white skin of Konoha's second-most famous traitor.

"A little test is in order."

He blurred into motion, appearing between the two of them in an instant and aiming a palm strike at Sakura's torso. She attempted to weave out of the way but was still clipped, sending her hurtling off the branch and into another trunk, hitting it and sliding to the floor.

"Snake Style? Not bad, but I've no time to waste on her. Tell me, Naruto, where do you see yourself in five years?"

"Uh," Naruto deadpanned. "I didn't realise this was an interview."

"It is. Of sorts. I can give you unimaginable power. The likes of which this village never would. They fear you. You becoming their strongest ninja will never happen because they'll never let it."

"Didn't you become one of the Sannin while you were in Konoha? It seems they train people pretty well."

"Yes, but I was just a random orphan. You are the container of their most feared enemy."

"So what, you want me to turn missing nin?"

"I want you to accept power, and take my mark."

"No offence, but I've heard some pretty fucked up stuff about you from Anko," he said, looking around to gauge his teammates' conditions.

"They won't be of any help. One is unconscious, the other occupied. It appears you need some convincing."

The Snake Sannin leapt into action, shooting a clod of mud out of his mouth that spread into a sticky net. Naruto quickly substituted with a branch and folded dual chakra to his throat.

"Combination Technique: Magma Flow River!"

Superheated mud spewed towards his enemy, who simply dropped backwards off the branch, putting them both on the ground.

"I see sensei's been teaching you his signature techniques," Orochimaru commented, idly sidestepping a drip of liquid rock from above. "But he won't teach you everything. He doesn't even favour you above me."

Naruto didn't bother with rebuttal.

"Wind Release: Gale Palm!"

The concentrated blast of wind reached Orochimaru just as the man made a strange handseal. The technique disappeared completely, leaving the Sannin untouched.

"Surprised? This is his secret technique. The one he will never teach you, because he will never value you as much as he did me. But I will teach you. You've learned well from Anko, but all she knows, I taught her. I can teach you far more. Everything. Now, none of these children's tricks. Come at me with everything you have and I will let you flee. Hold back and you will die."

Naruto stared into the Sannin's eyes, realising the truth in his statement. He drew the Raijin from his waist, channelling chakra through it and letting the lightning blade extend with a hiss.

Orochimaru looked on, entirely unimpressed, but his eyes widened when Naruto didn't stop.

He channelled wind chakra into the blade, letting the wind and lightning mix so that the Raijin's original nature was overpowered, turning the blade into an invisible shimmer of concentrated cutting power. The blade began to whine like a steaming kettle as the boy swung it back and forth experimentally before continuing with his ministrations. He then pumped fire chakra into the weapon, igniting the wind and causing a bright flash of flame. When Orochimaru's eyes cleared, nearly instantaneously, the blade was now keening in an uncomfortable high pitch, glowing in a bright white.

"Channelling three natures at once in such a limited space?" Orochimaru chuckled. "I was right about you, boy."

Naruto darted forward, leading with his left eye, as everything turned into a blur for his natural eye. He let the whining blade trail behind him as he ran, tensing for the moment that he got within range.

At ten feet away from Orochimaru, Naruto's arm whipped forward, driving the Raijin forth with a powerful thrust. The snake's eyes widened in surprise as Naruto made his attack out of the sword's normal length and he scrambled to dodge. He was too late, however, as the force of the thrust combined with a surge of chakra caused the blade to grow within milliseconds, piercing straight through the traitor and another fifteen feet to the tree behind him. The smell of ozone and burnt flesh surrounded the two as the Sannin's insides were seared within seconds and his body crumbled to ash. The tree behind him exploded, the sap superheated to the point where it simply erupted.

Naruto stopped the flow of chakra to the blade in exhaustion before slumping to the ground. Channelling three different types of chakra, even with the Raijin's seals to convert pure chakra into lightning chakra, was straining, and the final surge may have burnt out a few of his tenketsu. They'd heal, of course, but it would be painful.

"Kukuku, you exceed all my expectations, Naruto-kun," Orochimaru said, rising up from where he had been hidden in the ground. "I barely had time to replace myself with a mud clone; even I couldn't have survived that. You have indeed impressed me, and I shall give you your reward."

Naruto feebly raised his sword to guard, but the Sannin batted it aside and bit down on the blond's neck, hard. It felt like a bee sting; he could feel something flowing into him, but it sapped his strength and drove him deep into darkness.

"When you want more power," the Sannin said, his voice penetrating through the haze. "Come to me."

* * *

><p>"Come closer, boy," the voice grumbled.<p>

"Fox?"

"It's Kurama, you know that. You've been tainted."

"But I'll heal, right?"

"You know what happens when an odd seal is applied to an even seal, correct? The Cursed Seal of Heaven is a single spiralled seal, and is currently interacting with your father's eight trigram seal. The imbalance is tearing you apart."

"So what do we do?"

"I can rectify it. Since you've been learning seals, I could edit the cursed seal with a second spiral that would purify the chakra it emits. This would regain balance within your body, but there may be changes."

"How so?"

"I need you to tear off a part of my seal. I need to be able to channel at least three tails of chakra into your body to do this."

"Will this weaken the seal?"

"Of course, but I can't break free before you've promised to free me anyway. The seal won't degrade that fast, and I hold true to my promises."

"Alright. On this, I trust you."

The pale shadow of Naruto stumbled over to the gates where the nine-tailed fox lived. With a shaking hand, he tore an entire corner off the seal and let it flutter to the ground.

"Excellent, now I can-"

"YOU!"

The booming voice came from behind Naruto and he turned around slowly.

Standing before him, looking every inch the warrior, was the Fourth Hokage. His father.

"What have you done to my son?" he shouted, tears beginning to leak from his eyes.

"He's helping me!" Naruto said. "Orochimaru-"

"Not him," Minato interrupted. "You!"

The Yellow Flash threw himself across the intervening space, tumbling into Naruto and throwing them both backwards. The Fourth Hokage started pummelling his son as hard as he could.

"He was only a boy! He had so much potential! I gave everything for him!"

The reality of the mindscape shifted as Minato called a tri-pronged kunai to his hand, preparing to plunge it into his son. Just as his hand reached its zenith-

SNAP!

"Well that was satisfying," the fox grumbled. It licked it's lips as the battered boy trembled.

"I wouldn't worry about it," the fox said. "He must've left a chakra imprint of himself to keep me in check if I ever tried to escape. But bijuu chakra is corrosive; it must have changed his chakra somehow. Don't worry, your father didn't actually hate you. I'm going to get to work. Sit tight."

Choking red chakra surged from the cage and was funnelled into the red pipes lining the walls of the sewer. Some of the ancillary seals kicked in to filter it out, but the sheer volume of chakra burnt them out quickly.

"Don't worry, I'll repair those too," the fox muttered.

The pipes ran off into the distance, with the red chakra following. When the chakra had permeated his body, the cage room started to glow with an eerie red light.

"Found it," Kurama said. "It was lurking around your brainstem."

A grotesque creature was dragged into the cage by arms of red chakra and dropped straight in front of the Kyūbi.

"Who do you think you are?" it muttered. "Only Orochimaru-sama may command me."

"A proprietary design," the fox muttered. "Kid, you'd be all over this if you were fully conscious. This is a mixture of a biological agent, foreign chakra and a condensed sealing matrix. The interaction gives it the semblance of life, but it's really no more than a recording. I just need to-"

The fox clamped its jaws around part of the monster's head and ripped, pulling part of the creature into its jaws and to its belly.

"That'll break down the nasty bits. Now I need you to channel some chakra, kit."

Naruto feebly flushed chakra around his system, hands in the ram seal. The red light in the pipes receded to let a weak amount of blue light flow into the room. One of the Kyūbi's tails lashed out, latched onto the blue chakra, and forced it into the creature.

With a strangled scream it fell to the ground, undergoing a painful metamorphosis. The bulbous additions and freakish limbs receded, until the creature morphed into something that looked sort of like Naruto, but with dark skin, orange hair, and a much higher muscle mass.

"What must I do, master?" the creature asked the insensate boy.

"He needs your chakra," the Kyūbi said. "Otherwise he will die of system shock."

"I do not obey you, but you appear correct. So I shall serve."

* * *

><p>Haku was nervously guarding her two teammates in a lean-to made of ice, propped against a tree. Both were still unconscious, but Sakura showed signs of recovering quickly. Naruto she knew nothing about.<p>

"Hey, you in there! Open up before we blast this ice wall down!" a voice shouted from outside.

Haku peered through the ice, seeing one of the sound teams fanned around the tree, brandishing weapons.

"We're here to kill the blond one," one of them shouted. "Give him up and we'll let you leave."

"Can it Dosu," another said. "No prisoners. You know how the boss operates.

"Ninja Art: Decapitating Airwaves!"

A crescent of cutting air blasted from a hole in his arm and ploughed into the ice wall. The wall held, with nothing but an aesthetic scratch along the surface.

"You're an amateur, Zaku," Dosu taunted. "Watch this!"

He punched the ice wall with his gauntlet and the ice started to resonate. Haku watched in disbelief as the ice barrier around her teammates disintegrated.

"You see that?" he boasted. "That's the difference bet-"

Dosu fell to the floor with a gurgle as an icicle shot into his throat, severing arteries and blocking off his speech. The Sound genin fell to the floor, dead, as Haku stood to face the remaining two.

"If you run now you will live. Try to harm my teammates and you will receive the same treatment."

Zaku, enraged, leapt at her, shooting cutting winds from his hands.

"Death at your hands or death at the boss's? No contest!"

After a five second taijutsu spar, Zaku fell to the ground, senbon peppered through his throat.

"And you?" she asked the third Sound genin.

"I... I'll leave," she said, before fleeing.

Haku breathed a sigh of relief that was quickly swamped by the feeling of intense killing intent directed at her.

"Out of my way," came a bored voice. "I am here to kill the blond one. He will validate my existence."

Haku didn't even bother negotiating, throwing ice senbon with unerring accuracy. Without even blinking, a shield of sand erupted around the newcomer.

"Gaara, we have the scrolls, you don't need to do this. Let's go!" the blonde kunoichi following him shouted.

"No. She is irrelevant. And she will die!"

Shuriken formed from sand rocketed towards the ice user, only dodged due to Gaara's inability to aim in a pattern that would prevent dodging. Shuriken were rarely used to kill - their use was usually to direct an enemy's movement. A skilled ninja could alternate their throws and aim in different areas so that a ninja that tried to dodge the first shuriken would certainly be hit by the last. Gaara had no understanding of this concept.

Before Gaara could coordinate a second volley, a burst of dark chakra came from inside the tree. And before Haku could blink, a dark blur shot past her shoulder and barrelled into the red-haired sand user. And then, before Gaara or his sand could react, he'd been punched in the jaw hard enough to make him bite his own lip.

"Blood? You made me bleed? Haha, I knew you would validate my existence, Uzumaki Naruto! Mother will feast on your blood!"

A wave of sand trapped Naruto in a cocoon, Gaara holding his hand clenched.

"Desert Bu-"

"Fire Release: Glass Flow River!"

Fire chakra layered over itself an incredible number of times was shot into the sand cocoon, reducing it all to glass. With a titanic heave, the bindings around Naruto shattered.

The genin was no longer a blond, with yellow hair and dark skin; the spitting image of the creature from his mind. The darkness seemed to recede, and Naruto got a hold on his mind.

"You're going a little crazy, aren't you Number One?" he said. "You need to calm down!"

The now-conscious Naruto rushed the red-headed demon container, striking at him with all five fingers stretched out.

"Fuinjutsu: Five Element Seal!"

The kanji spread from the point of contact across Gaara's entire body, wrapping him in script and stripping him of the connection to his bijuu. With no demonic chakra left in his body, Gaara fell unconscious due to shock.

"You two," Naruto said. "Get this maniac to the tower. Killing him might release the Ichibi and I don't want that. But be warned, I won't suffer this idiocy lightly. Let him out of your sight again and I might just have to risk it."

The two other Sand genin came crawling out of the woodwork, nodding furiously and in utter shock regarding Naruto's handiwork.

"Haku, I still have the scrolls," Naruto said. "I'll pick up Sakura - shall we go to the tower?"

"Hai, Naruto-sama," she breathed. "I am glad to see you looking so well."

"That bastard gave me a gift," he said, flexing his dark fist. "And I might as well make use of it."

* * *

><p>"It is good to see you all here," coughed Hayate Gecko. "An exceptional bunch, the lot of you. Unfortunately, spaces for the finals are limited, and there are too many of you. Before the second stage ends, you will all need to fight in a qualifying round for the finals."<p>

The crowd murmured in anger, but Hayate paid them no attention.

"You will be entered into a random draw to fight one other ninja until unconsciousness, death, forfeit, or I call the winner. When I call a match my decision is final. Continuing to attack after that may provoke disqualification.

Before we start, does anybody was to quit here?"

"I do," Kabuto said, raising his hand. "I'm just about out of chakra, fighting somebody else would merely be a formality."

"Understood. Now, all the participants are entered into the board, we'll see the first match's combatants."

Everyone went silent as the board picked the first matchup.

"So, Round One: Momochi Haku versus Hyūga Hinata! Both combatants please stay here, the rest of you retreat to the balconies."

The two kunoichi made their way to opposite sides of the room and Hayate stood in the middle.

"Okay, remember the rules and remember what you're fighting for. Begin!"

Hinata immediately dashed forwards, blue chakra lancing around her hands. She struck a quick pattern at Haku's tenketsu, but the older kunoichi was faster, weaving around the Hyūga's strikes and striking back herself. Hinata's Byakugan eyes saw all of Haku's counters, however, and she hopped swiftly back, making some distance.

"Bad move," Haku muttered. Ice started to crystallise from the thin air, as she hurled senbon at the Hyūga heiress. With her panoramic vision, Hinata was able to dodge or deflect all the needles, but Haku showed no sign of slowing down. To most of the genin participants, the showdown got to the point where both of the fighter's arms were a blur, and their motions were blurred by a floating layer of shattered ice.

As Haku moved to speed up, she was suddenly struck by a flashback. A similar battle, another Konoha genin with special eyes, one needle slightly out of place and blood seeping along the concrete ground. As she focused back on the match, Haku's hand quavered.

"Proctor, I cannot continue," she said. "I forfeit."

Her announcement attracted looks of disbelief from the surrounding ninja, but Hayate nonetheless called the match, declaring Hinata the winner.

"What was that?" Sakura asked, as Haku rejoined them.

"Sasuke?" Naruto asked, gently.

Haku simply nodded, turning away from them to face the arena.

"You won't make the same mistake again," Naruto whispered. "Although I'm proud that you chose to stop rather than risk it."

Haku blushed lightly, the red quite obvious on her pale face.

"Round Two: Inuzuka Kiba versus Uzumaki Naruto!"

The two Konoha genin made their way to the arena floor, Kiba smirking the whole way.

"You may have an eye upgrade, Naruto, but you're still the same class clown you always were. This'll be easy."

"And you were the second best at combat in our class, Kiba," Naruto said. "But you're wrong. I'm not the same ninja I was then. But I wonder whether you're still the same kid you were in the Academy."

"Let's just start this," the boy growled. "Proctor?"

"Round Two, begin!" Hayate shouted, before jumping back to stay out of the fray.

"Take this one easy, Akamaru," Kiba shouted to his dog. "I don't need help to take him down."

Naruto simply shook his head as Kiba jumped into a Tsuuga, spinning through the air with claws outstretched, trying to plough into Naruto. Sadly for the feral boy, to Naruto's Sharingan he appeared to be moving as if through treacle, and dodging was a simple matter. As Kiba passed to his side, Naruto shot a Gale Palm technique straight into the boy's side, interrupting his spin and sending Kiba careening into the wall. He struck it with an unhealthy thud and didn't get back up.

"Winner, Uzumaki Naruto," Hayate declared, sounding surprised. Field medics picked up Kiba, checked his vitals and carted the boy off after giving Hayate a nod.

"Winner by knockout, I should clarify," he added, making the Konoha genin release a sigh of relief.

"Next Round, Haruno Sakura versus Yamanaka Ino."

The two ex-best friends stared each other down, barely moving when Hayate called the start of the match.

"I see you still don't know how to start a fight, Forehead," Ino taunted. "Funny how some things never change."

"I'm still uncomfortable starting fights with people I used to be close with," Sakura admitted. "But once something's started, I finish it."

She flicked her forehead protector down to hang around her neck, revealing her Sharingan eye. Ino, who'd been completely out of the loop regarding Sakura's progress, gasped.

"You- You're using his eye on me? You bitch!"

"Do you think Sasuke would have any sentimentality about this? He'd want the stronger kunoichi to win, simple as. Now shut it and get ready."

Ino put her hands in the familiar seal for her Mind Transfer technique, aiming at Sakura. The pink-haired kunoichi simply walked to the side and then began to bridge the gap between the two of them, her genjutsu already taking effect. Ino shouted out the name of her mind transfer technique and then slumped to the ground, her mind having left her body.

Sakura didn't bother dodging; Ino had aimed at the wrong place. Her genjutsu, however, had been broken by Ino's mind leaving her body. Sakura quickly bridged the distance and held a kunai to Ino's throat.

"Proctor?"

"Um, winner, Haruno Sakura."

Ino glowered at Sakura as she withdrew the kunai.

"People change, grow, and get stronger, Ino. I'm not the same little girl who used to be your friend. But I'm also not the same little girl who valued some boy over our friendship. I'm a different person, but I'm willing to meet you halfway if you want to start again."

Ino ducked her head in shame. When she looked back up, there was the glint of tears in her eyes.

"I'd like that, I think."

The Team 7 genin eased off once all of their matches had been concluded. Kakashi appeared, late as always, and congratulated the three of them on their performance.

The next round was Shino versus Kankuro, and the puppet user was quickly identified despite using his puppet as a distraction, drained of chakra by Shino's bugs, and defeated.

Neji was up against Kabuto's teammate, who was able to stretch and contort his body to constrict his opponent. He managed to completely surround Neji before the Hyūga revealed that he could emit lances of chakra from any point on his body, causing the older genin to jump back, blood dripping from his wounds. For whatever reason, Neji was furious for the entire duration of the match, and ended the match with a chakra strike to the heart, killing his opponent.

The Konoha ninja looking down at the match all darkened at this. Although killing was allowed in the exams, Neji had still taken an active ninja from Konoha's ranks. While strictly allowed under the context of the exam, it would do him no favours with his superiors.

Tenten was then placed against Temari, Gaara's female teammate, and was soundly defeated when her thrown weapons were deflected with wind jutsu.

Lee faced Gaara and surprised the entire room with his efforts. Naruto wiped a bead of sweat from his brow, realising how lucky he'd been that Lee hadn't been sparring with him at full power. The match ended when Gaara partially caught Lee in his sand, crushing the thick-haired genin's leg and arm.

Finally, Choji went up against Kabuto's last teammate, Akadō Yoroi, and was defeated by a genjutsu that caused the big-boned lad to charge straight into the wall. The mysterious Konoha genin revealed no other skills, and Naruto made sure to earmark him as an unknown element.

As there were an odd number of Genin and Shikamaru hadn't fought anybody yet, he was allowed to pass onto the next round. As his team grumbled around him, Shikamaru quickly shut them up.

"Luck is as much a part of a ninja's arsenal as anything else," he said.

"So that was the preliminaries to the final round of the chūnin exams," Hiruzen said, jumping down to the centre of the arena and addressing the crowd. "Well done, all of you, for making it this far. Those who continue will be a testament to the strength of their villages, and those who have lost have learned much-valued information about how they measure up in combat. But the exams aren't just about combat. They are a simulation. A simulation of the circumstances of war, and a replacement for the system whereby villages would constantly war for client contracts and military power. It the the efforts of genin in the chūnin exams that motivate a lot of the contracts coming to the great villages, and a good show from a village's genin will result in increased work for their home. This system, which may have seemed hard to you, is nothing compared to the untold horrors of war.

So!" he said, clapping his hands together. "You who passed will receive thirty days to plans your tactics against your enemies, from what you have seen today and earlier. We will now give you the opportunity to pull out numbered balls from this bag - they may give you a clue as to who you'll be facing first in the finals."

"Please take a ball and announce the number on it to the crowd. In the order that you fought, please," Hayate announced.

"Eight," Hinata squeaked.

"Nine," Naruto said, looking queerly at the proctor, who also looked uncomfortable at the coincidence.

"Four," Sakura said.

"One," Shino said.

"Six," Neji intoned.

"Seven," Temari said.

"Three," Gaara muttered.

"Five," Yoroi said.

"Two," Shikamaru drawled.

"Okay, so these are the numbers for the finals," Hayate said. "Make of them what you will."

As the ninja dispersed, Kakashi cornered his team.

"Naruto, are you sure you don't want a suppression seal on the cursed seal?" he asked.

"No, I'm sure I don't. There's a purifying seal placed on top of it, and Orochimaru's chakra has been drained out and replaced with my own. Although there is something I'd like to ask you about in private..."

"Understood. Sakura, I will draw up a training plan for you and contact you tomorrow morning. I will be training you both in person on alternating days. Anko has volunteered to help you on the other day, but I will also send a shadow clone along to oversee. Haku, I hope you don't mind, but I will be focusing my efforts on Naruto and Sakura. However, you are invited to their training sessions as long as you do not share the results of their training with the other. They have the right to surprise each other with whatever tricks they might think up over this month. I will also be drawing up a training plan for you that you are encouraged to follow, even though you will not be in the exams."

"That is very fair of you, sensei," she said.

"Okay then. I'll see you all tomorrow. For now I need to speak to Naruto in private. There will be jonin escorts out of the forest which I recommend joining; in fact, Asuma and Kurenai are just about to leave."

The two females of Team 7 nodded and left to join their peers and leave Training Ground 44. Kakashi grabbed Naruto's shoulder and they body flickered to the top of the tower, where they could see nearly the whole forest.

"Sensei, when Orochimaru bit me, the fox altered the seal and preserved my sanity. Had he not, I think the seal would have destabilised and driven me mad. But because I had to release so much of the fox's chakra to alter the cursed seal, one of my dad's failsafe seals kicked in."

"Oh?" Kakashi hmmed, as Naruto had not yet been debriefed on the Snake Sannin's involvement in the exams.

"Yes, and it wasn't just any seal. It was a preserved section of his chakra. Inside my mind, it was him. My father, there in my mind."

"That's brilliant, Naruto," Kakashi enthused. "What I'd give to see sensei again."

"That's the thing, sensei," Naruto mused. "It wasn't all that great. Not at all. In fact, he attacked me, called me a monster, and asked what I'd done with his son.

"What?"

"The fox claimed that dad's chakra might have been corrupted by the constant exposure to bijuu chakra, but-"

"Naruto, you never met your father, so you can be forgiven for thinking this. Your father left the war nearly a broken man, having killed thousands of enemy troops. The only thing that kept him sane was Kushina. She was his rock, and kept him sane. And then, you happened. I had never seen sensei that happy, even before the war. For the whole pregnancy he glowed with happiness. In fact, it made him so optimistic that the Third had to veto a few of his diplomacy agreements for making too many concessions. No, your father loved you, and I know he would have been immensely proud of who you've become and how you bore the burden he gave you. Chakra constructs aren't reliable things - your kage bunshin can barely last longer than a day. It's testament to sensei's genius that his chakra managed to last so long, but it would have been subject to the fox's unconscious influence. I know it's a trying experience, but try to put it from your mind as one of the random disappointments of life."

Naruto nodded, a smile gracing his lips.

"Thanks for that sensei. Everybody else hero worships my dad so much that I can't be sure they'd give an honest opinion on his personality. I guess it must've just been a seal malfunction. I'll have to ask the fox to keep an eye out for any others he's left; I don't want that happening again."

"No problem. Now listen, Naruto, same deal as Sakura, I'll have a training plan for you, but I want to meet with you tomorrow morning to get an update on your skills. You've spent enough time holed up in the Senju library that I don't trust I know your limits any more. Eight o' clock at the training ground?"

"So, more like eleven?"

"Well it's been a tiring day for you, you need your rest," he said, rubbing his head sheepishly.

"Sure, I can do 'eight'," Naruto said. "See you then."

He hopped off the tower and gently glided down the tower face, before running into the forest and towards the village.

Kakashi simply stayed at the top of the tower until the sun set, eyes locked in a staring contest with the far-off Hokage monument.

He wouldn't return to his apartment until early in the morning.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: I got a job and I'm tired. BUT I WILL NOT ABANDON YOU!<strong>


	7. Discarded

Naruto made his way to Team 7's training ground for half ten in the morning, having made himself a full breakfast and lain in bed until nine. Having a late lie-in was a concept now unfamiliar to him, as he'd been awake early and training since Sasuke's death.

Kakashi, to Naruto's immense surprise, was there, sitting on a training post and reading his smut.

"Glad you finally saw fit to join me, Naruto," his teacher said.

"You're... early!"

"I actually got here fifteen minutes late, but that's neither here nor there. You're late."

"Like you really expected me to be on time, considering you're always three hours late."

"A ninja must always expect the unexpected; look underneath the underneath. But yes, I didn't expect you to be here when I told you. I just wanted to catch up on my reading. Now," he said, standing up. "I read a few of the reports from the site where Orochimaru attacked you. Completely disintegrated grass, a tree exploded from superboiled sap... What exactly was the technique he used?"

"Sensei, that was me."

"I mean, it could've been a fire jutsu, but the concentration and shape manipulation required..."

"Sensei, I did it!"

"It would suggest enhancement from the wind element, but that would usually just result in a larger explosion, not a more concentrated one..."

"Damn it, sensei, I was the one who used that technique!"

Kakashi's eye whipped straight up and rooted Naruto to the ground.

"Then you owe Konoha a new tree. But that's neither here nor there. Yes, I know it was you, I was just playing. How?"

Naruto took out the Raijin and activated it, channelling wind and then fire chakra through the blade.

"Hmm," Kakashi commented, peering at the sword. "Not very stable at all, and the Second filled that thing with shape manipulation seals. You completed the technique quickly though, which is a plus. Overall, I'd say it's not combat ready. How did you get the opportunity to use it in a fight against the snake?"

"He wanted me to use my strongest technique. Wouldn't accept anything less."

"Figures. Now practice will perfect that technique, but now I want to see you try and channel a subelement."

"Excuse me?"

"You've learnt how to chakra fold, something only previously done by the Third or ninja with a bloodline limit. Subelemental use isn't outside the realms of possibility. Try ice."

Naruto channelled water and wind chakra into his tenketsu before folding them back over each other, making a weave of the energies.

"It isn't exactly the same at chakra folding to make a combination technique," he commented as he worked. "For combination techniques you fold the energy back so that the tenketsu is clear for a different type of chakra. With this, you channel both energies at the same time and fold them into one new chakra."

"Mah, you know what you're doing, get on with it."

Naruto channeled the energy out of his palm and into the air, where it caused a small cloud of frost to puff into being before dispersing.

"That looks promising to me," Kakashi said. "Now, wood."

"But... mokuton was the First Hokage's specialty," Naruto said. "Wouldn't it be sacrilegious to use them?"

"The First was a ninja. He wouldn't care. Second, you aren't the first wood-user since him. Just the latest."

Naruto shrugged and got to it, folding earth and water chakra into each other until they formed a new energy, one that felt calming and healing even as it threatened to burst out of his tenketsu. He released it into his hand and a small leaf grew from his hand, growing and spreading further out until it was joined by a twig and the beginnings of a branch.

"Ah! It's fused to my hand!" Naruto shouted, trying to tug it off.

"Stop channelling chakra and it will detach itself," Kakashi said, completely dampened to his student's concerns.

Kakashi was true to his word, and the plantlife fell to the floor when Naruto stopped channelling chakra to his hand.

"Well I think that's enough for now," Kakashi said. "It looks like you could do more, but I think two subelements is fine, considering many jonin never make it to the point of mastering two primary elements. And, of course, we have teachers for those two subelements."

"Oh, who?"

"Well Haku, of course, for ice. And an old friend of mine for wood. You'll meet him soon. Is there anything else you've learnt?"

"I've found the notes to the Hiraishin technique," Naruto said. "But I don't know how to get it to work."

"Sensei's notes? But I thought they were all destroyed!"

"Oh no, not my dad's notes, although I can kind of work out what he was doing from one of his kunai. No, it turns out that Senju Tobirama created an early version of the technique, which my dad refined, making it faster and less chakra-intensive. Still, it's baffling."

"Any luck?"

"If you count managing to teleport small pieces of my clones' internal organs, then yes. More study isn't helping, either. I've been able to make an improvement to my replacement technique, but only when I switch out with one of my clones. As for proper teleportation - there's a crucial element I'm missing."

"Well keep an open mind and let it come to you. If anyone can, it's you. Based on what I've seen, I think I don't need to train you at all."

"What?"

"Hey, hey, don't get so angry. I've found you a new teacher. To my shame, I must even admit that he's a better teacher than I am."

"Oh," Naruto said. "Where is he?"

"Um, he'll probably be relaxing at the hot springs," Kakashi said. "He told me to tell you to wait here and he'll be over soon."

"Oh hell no, I'm not waiting around for another tardy teacher!" Naruto exclaimed, turning around and marching off.

"Well, I tried," Kakashi said, settling down to do some more reading of his book.

* * *

><p>The male side of the hot springs was practically deserted, with only a few random chūnin and that guy who followed Konohamaru around there. Naruto looked around to see if anybody of interest was nearby. He even sensed the chakra around him, assuming that his teacher would have a reasonable chakra source. Nothing.<p>

"Kehehe," somebody giggled.

The person was not inside the baths, meaning they were outside. Naruto nimbly leapt the bathhouse wall and landed on the other side, where there was a landscaped garden owned by the bathhouse. Leant up against the female side of the hot springs, with his eye pressed against a knot in the wood, was a veritable giant of a man with huge white hair and a red obi.

"Ahem," Naruto cleared his throat.

"Aww pike off kid, can't you see I'm busy? I'll train ya later."

"Are you looking into the female side of the baths?"

"Nooooo, I'm looking into the male side of the baths. Who do you think I am, some sort of two-bit writer? That's not my gimmick. I'm no mere pervert. I... AM A SUPER PERVERT!"

With the proclamation, his voice raised to a shout, which led to a flurry of activity from the other side of the wall.

"Damn, I got carried away. Okay kid, with me."

The man flashed over to Naruto faster than he could track and grabbed him, body flickering several times in succession until Naruto was dizzy and had no idea where they were going.

"That'll put them off the trail," the man said. "Thank goodness Anko, Kurenai or Yūgao weren't there. Then I'd actually be in trouble. Now, kid," he said, straightening to his full height. "Do you know who I am?"

"Well let's see," Naruto said, starting to tick things off on his fingers. "We have a self-proclaimed super pervert, long white hair, a forehead protector that says 'oil' on it, I found him staring at naked women... If I had to guess, I'd say... Tsunade of the Sannin?"

"Oh haha, very funny brat," the man said. "So you've heard of the Great Jiraiya, big deal. I'm only here because you've got that fox in your gut and I'm this place's sealing master. Don't get cocky."

"Oh, so you're not here because you hold some lingering affection for the memory of my father, or you're finally fulfilling some of your responsibilities as my godfather or the fact that the Toad Clan, your people, seem to think that I'm the child of prophesy? You prick!"

Naruto leapt at the gigantic man and swung with a hammerfist, the older man easily swaying out of the way. Naruto's hand continued its momentum and crashed into the ground, where it left a small crater and a spiderweb of little fissures.

"Oh damn, not another one," Jiraiya moaned, as the genin redoubled his assault.

He flashed through a series of handseals, bit his thumb, and smacked the ground with two hands, resulting in a plume of smoke puffing up. Naruto stopped his attack when he saw who had appeared - the two old toads, Ma and Pa.

"Jiraiya-child, what are you doing summoning me as well as Pa? I had cooking I was working on!"

"Sorry Ma, but the kid here was going a bit crazy. Apparently he's met you before?"

Ma looked past Jiraiya and saw the still-seething Naruto.

"Naruto-child! Oh, you finally got in touch with this big degenerate. Well, it's about time."

"Naruto said something very interesting," Jiraiya chimed in. "About being the child of prophesy."

Pa sighed and palmed his head.

"The Great Toad Sage said it," he moaned. "He was having one of his senior moments."

"But the Sage always speaks the truth, doesn't he?" Jiraiya asked. "I mean, he usually just asks for locust-cakes and talks about how much he hates lichen, but he always speaks the truth."

"Yes, he does. So he must have been correct. So," Pa suddenly inhaled before screaming at the Toad Sage. "WHY HAVE YOU BEEN IGNORING OUR SUMMONS? You've summoned Gamaken since we asked to see you - he even told you we had a message for you - but you've been completely ignoring us!"

"Heheh, sorry Pa," the old man said, rubbing his head. "Icha Icha Maid Cafe is coming out soon and I was neck deep in work."

"Sure you were," Ma croaked. "In any event, have him sign the contract now so we can get things moving."

"Hey, hey, I'm the holder of the Toad Summoning Scroll!" Jiraiya said. "I get to choose who signs this as well, and I haven't tested the boy yet."

"Test him all you want," Pa said. "The boy managed to enter sage mode the first time he visited Myoboku. The entire clan approves of him, and your Hokage wants him to sign the contract. We checked, seeing as you were incommunicado. If you push us on this, we'll just void the contract you have and write a new one."

"He's that important to you?"

"He should be that important to you as well!" Ma shouted. "Your student's son, your godchild, and you're being petty over letting him sign his birthright? What happened to you, Jiraiya-child?"

"Plenty happened," the man muttered. "You don't need to remind me of what I've lost."

With that, the Sannin leapt away, leaving the three in the clearing bemused.

"Quick, give us a sample of your blood, Naruto-child, we won't last here for long now that Jiraiya's gone."

Naruto cut his finger and wiped it on Ma's outstretched hand, just before the two disappeared in puffs of smoke.

After a minute, Naruto himself then disappeared in another puff of smoke, swirling through a coloured vortex before reappearing in Myoboku.

"That Jiraiya," Ma muttered. "So headstrong. Well you're here now, Naruto-child, we'll see about getting you your own contract."

"What will happen regarding Jiraiya's contract?" Naruto asked, anxious not to remove a resource from Konoha's arsenal.

"Oh, we'll let him keep that tatty old thing. It was just an idle threat - he gets on too well with Gamabunta for us to remove him as a summoner. But we'll make our displeasure known... Now, while I contact the Keeper of the Scrolls to get your contract written, you will go with Pa to the Toad Oil pond. The one you fell in last time you were here. There he will explain senjutsu to you."

"This way, tadpole," the male toad croaked, hopping towards the lake.

They reached the Toad Oil pond, still ringed by the gigantic stone statues, and Pa hopped up to the rim of the pond.

"How many chakra energies do you have, boy?"

"Well if we're being completely strict, I suppose I'd say I have eleven."

"Eleven? The usual answer is two."

"Yes, but my normal chakra can change, and there are often trace elements inside my body. There's some water chakra circulating around my leg right now that I could separate into normal chakra if I wanted, but I can use it as a catalyst to speed up water techniques if it stays in my body."

"I understand. So, list these eleven chakras."

"Well there's my normal chakra which is made of yin and yang, the fox's chakra which is just yin, my altered cursed seal chakra, fire, earth, water, wind and lightning (although I'm not very good with that yet), ice and wood."

"Well the first thing we'll need to do is settle your body as much as possible so that you mainly have yin and yang. Too much rampant chakra is the chief reason these guys," Pa gestured at the statues surrounding them. "Are here."

"You keep telling me I need to change my chakra, but what is senjutsu?"

"It's the ability to draw in chakra from nature and use it to supplement your own body. It requires utter stillness, harmony with nature, and a relationship with one of the summons clans."

"If I'm utterly still how can I use senjutsu effectively?"

"You- gah, too many questions. You need to be still to enter sage mode. After that, you can move. But it will break the connection with nature, so you'll only be in Sage Mode for so long. Anyway, strip off and get in this oil."

"What? Why do I need to be naked?"

"The oil increases your connection to nature and will help your training."

"Pervert toad!"

"Idiot kid!"

* * *

><p>Naruto and Pa faced off against each other, both standing at opposite sides of a ruined landscape.<p>

"You don't have to do this, Naruto-child," Pa said. "If you back down now I'll go easy on you."

"I can't give up now, old man," he said. "Everything I've been to has led me to this."

"So be it. When you arrive in the afterlife, I hope you'll have no regrets."

The two tensed, preparing to jump, and then Naruto cupped his hands to his mouth.

"Ma, Pa just said he hates your cooking!"

"WHAT?" the shrill scream came from far away, and Pa paled. Naruto flashed him the peace sign before disappearing in a burst of smoke.

A small frog had been sent through the portal to Konoha to summon Naruto back, and he'd timed his taunt just right.

He appeared near the top of the Hokage monument, just able to see Jiraiya perched on the Fourth's stone head.

"I told Gamawari to bring you here," he said, not turning around. "I really got chewed out by Ma and Pa for how I reacted, so I thought I should clear the air."

He stood and walked over to Naruto, towering over the boy.

"I don't trust you. I will never trust you. I was the one who checked up on your seal when you were a baby and although my student was a genius, he was far too lenient. He trusted that you'd be able to control the Kyūbi, and made it more flexible than Kushina's seal. But you're an accident waiting to happen. The creation of jinchūrikki is a disgusting thing, and one day you'll release it, intentionally or unintentionally, and hurt Konoha. Until then I'll help you with your seal if I have to, but when that day comes? I'll happily put you down."

Jiraiya disappeared, no smoke or noise, he just vanished from Naruto's senses.

"Oh, and sensei said he wanted to see you. Don't make him wait."

Naruto followed the directions of the disembodied voice and made his way to the Hokage Tower, moving quickly and keeping a beady eye on his surroundings.

"Hey, Old Man!"

"Naruto!" the aged Hokage said, putting down his paperwork and putting on a smile. "After the Chūnin Exams and your time with the dogs and toads, I feel like I haven't had any time with you since you were promoted to genin."

Naruto pondered the words, thinking back to Orochimaru's taunts.

_'But he won't teach you everything. He doesn't even favour you above me… he will never value you as much as he did me.'_

Then Jiraiya's words.

_'I don't trust you. I will never trust you.'_

Tsunade's flimsy excuses for endangering his life.

His father, trying to kill him.

Were the higher ranks of Konoha really all trying to kill him?

"Jiji," he said. "Do you hate me?"

The old man's smile immediately faltered, and was replaced with a look of concern.

"Naruto, you must never think that. Why do you even ask?"

"Well the Sannin seem to have it in for me. Orochimaru defeated me with some fancy move he claims you don't trust me enough to know. Jiraiya actually went out and said that he wants to kill me. And then…"

Naruto explained the incident inside his mind with his father, and the Hokage looked on in shock.

"I had no idea of the depth of Jiraiya's feelings towards you," Hiruzen said. "I assumed he found it difficult to be around you because you reminded him of Minato, not because he resented you. Your father's reaction… I have no idea. Orochimaru - well, he knows how to use my second original technique. You know chakra folding, and I've made that skill available to anybody in Konoha with the patience to learn it. Sadly, it requires persistent dedication from a young age and a high level of talent. There are really only three jōnin in Konoha who could have learnt it. Kakashi is too lazy, Gai prefers to focus on taijutsu, and Asuma… well, he'd rather have nothing to do with my teachings." The old Hokage's face fell a little more. "But I was waiting until you were recovered, then until you'd got through the exams, then until you were back from the toads… I got a little caught up in waiting for the perfect time to teach you, but I suppose I should carve out the time for it right now. Nabako?"

He shouted to the receptionist outside.

"Hai, Hokage-sama?"

"Act as my stand-in for today's council debate. If anybody challenges you send them to me."

"H-hai. Where will you be?"

"The training ground at the Hokage Mansion. This way, Naruto."

* * *

><p>The two ninja stood close enough to see each other's eyes, the aged Hokage in full battle regalia.<p>

"Hit me with a wind technique," he said. "Any one you have."

Naruto shrugged, figuring that the old man knew what he was doing.

"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!" he shouted, throwing a concussive blast of air towards his commanding officer.

Making the same strange handseal as Orochimaru, Sarutobi merely muttered, "Dispel", and the technique fell apart completely.

"Earth," the Hokage barked.

Naruto tried element after element, but earth crumbled, water collapsed, lightning grounded and fire extinguished. It was only when Naruto shot a barrage of ice needles at the Hokage that the man dodged rather than dispelled.

"Subelemental manipulation, Naruto? I am impressed. Had I known you could do that I wouldn't have been so cocky with my technique. Hopefully now you can see the first flaw I have."

"If you're… surprised by the attack, the technique doesn't work?"

"Nearly. I need to already know and be able to use the technique. I can't use ice techniques, so I can't defend against them."

"How does knowing a technique help you destroy it?"

"Simply. By applying what is thought to be a purely academic chakra nature to battle. Have you ever read about anti-chakra?"

"Never."

"I'm not surprised. Research was canned once I realised its effects, and how it could drastically change shinobi warfare. You know that the nature of chakra changes when it flows in different ways. Fire, for example, is energetic, expansive, effervescent. Well, anti-fire chakra is the opposite of that. Sluggish, compressed, reserved. When equal measures of fire and anti-fire connect, both disappear. By combining my ability to use anti-chakra and my knowledge of the amounts of chakras that go into different techniques, I can cancel all Konoha-listed techniques.

Breaking down a new technique into its component parts is a necessary part of this technique, and one that would take years to learn the hard way. Fortunately, you have an advantage." he pointed to Naruto's eye. "You can intuitively deconstruct techniques in seconds. So first, before you learn my technique, you're going to learn to use that eye."

* * *

><p>Having a third tomoe in his Sharingan eye was even more disconcerting than before. The difference was like night and day. What had appeared fast to his old eye was now sluggish to his new. Naruto caught sight of another rock missile and rolled out of the way, accurately predicting the path of the projectile and the shrapnel from where it landed.<p>

Sarutobi had delightedly taken to harassing and attempting to kill the boy, and if it weren't for the old man's constant assurances, Naruto would have been certain that Konoha's elite warrior really did want him dead. The Hokage was concealing himself masterfully; even Naruto's superior genjutsu dispelling abilities were doing him no good - either Hiruzen was simply that good, or he was also a master of simple camouflage. At Naruto's best guess, both.

A burst of water shot from behind him as a ball of fire closed in from the front. Taking his chances with the safer element, Naruto held his thumb and pinky finger together and channelled anti-fire chakra in the shape of an inverted grand fireball. The technique dissolved into nothing just as Naruto was flung to the side by a bludgeon of water and sent crashing into a tree.

"Ninja don't just send one technique at a time, you know," Sarutobi chided, as he landed in front of the sodden blond. "But you've done very well. Sensei would want to kill me for teaching this to somebody with Sharingan eyes, but I think his problem was with the Uchiha more than it was with eye transplants. Your eye combined with my technique will be devastating once you're able to dispel several at a time."

"But I still couldn't find you. Why was that?"

"I use chakra-folding inside my own body to increase the strength and versatility of my ninjutsu. Genjutsu affects the chakra coils of other people and influences their senses. Does that answer your question?"

"So you folded chakra inside my chakra coils to make a genjutsu that would have to be dispelled several times for it to fade away?"

"That's right. It's called genjutsu layering and is an easier version of the ninjutsu layering technique I use. Easier because it is possible for genjutsu specialists to use, and any ill effects due to lack of control are borne by your opponent, and not yourself. Kurenai, for example, uses genjutsu layering to great effect. Her skill in it promoted her to special jōnin nearly immediately after she made chūnin, and the rest of her skills only recently caught up."

"So can I teach it to Sakura? That and the ninjutsu dispel technique?"

"Naruto, anti-chakra puts strain on the chakra coils. You need to be able to fold both elemental chakra and anti-chakra together to create elemental anti-chakra, and I doubt her body could take it. But, as I've taught you this, I've formally announced you as my successor. As Orochimaru was once the only other chakra folding user he probably had a claim, but a traitor cannot inherit. I'd have liked to have taught my son, but some things aren't to be... So, when I pass on, this technique is yours to teach to whom and however you like. I trust your judgement."

At the old man's words of unqualified trust, Naruto started to tear up.

"Thanks, old man. I'd started to worry..."

"No matter what happens, you have your team, and that's all you need for now. If you want to become Hokage you'll have to win over the others, but that will come in time. Now get to sleep - you have an exam in the morning."

Naruto traipsed off, still squelching as the water drained into his shoes. Sarutobi watched him leave and was joined by Kakashi, who flickered next to him.

"Any word on Jiraiya?"

"Still following Naruto," Kakashi said. "Do you think he's in danger?"

"Jiraiya won't do anything drastic, but seeing his godfather failing him won't do a great deal for Naruto's mental health. I'll tell him to check up on the barrier wall to give the kid some breathing space."

"Why does he hate him, though?"

"Hatred is an illogical, ugly, thing. You've seen how the villagers react. I'd hoped Jiraiya was better than that, but apparently not."

"Shall I watch over Naruto?"

"Please do. Seeing as you only had Sakura to focus on this month, how is she doing?"

"You'll be pleasantly surprised, sir, although my money's still on Naruto."

"Of course," the Hokage nodded, before gripping Kakashi by the arm. "Now listen. There's a storm coming. I haven't felt this since the beginning of the last war, but this feeling is stronger. In the forest, when a great predator approaches, all the animals quiet and give the illusion of peace. These past few months, I've felt the same thing once again. If anything happens to me... I trust you to take care of your students. But I need you to give something to Naruto. It's sealed in the safe in my office, use the combination 88-52-49 and channel your chakra into the handle. It's a letter he needs to read. And the notes for his father's technique."

"But... you said they were all destroyed!"

"I lied, for the good of the village. We'd never have been left alone had anybody thought the Hiraishin still existed. But this is one more tool Naruto will need. He is our hope, Kakashi."

The cyclopean jonin nodded and leapt away to watch over his student, leaving the Hokage alone.

"The Will of Fire will bathe this land, but will we be reborn, or will we be burnt and left for the winds? I hope you can cure this poisoned world, Naruto."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: This is my shortest chapter yet. But, just like the calm Sarutobi has spotted, this is the calm before the storm. The next three chapters are going to get serious, and chapter 10 is the end of arc one.<strong>

**Oh, and a big thanks to Saligia010, whose comprehensive review PM I still haven't been able to respond to, but it at least reassures me that I should see this through to the end. I can see the finale from where I am now and it will certainly not mirror the end of the manga.**


	8. The Death of Four Kages

I don't own Naruto.

* * *

><p>"Welcome everybody to the fifty-fifth chūnin exam final, presenting nine of the finest genin the nation can offer! First, some entertainment!"<p>

Genma, the proctor, left the stadium floor as a group of chūnin started to shoot off various jutsu that looked like they had no use other than for decoration. Konoha was definitely pulling out all the stops for this one. For a final where seven out of the nine participants were from Konoha, the Hokage was making it a point to cement the village's strength and wow the spectators.

The display finished and Genma spoke out again.

"And now, the main event! These genin were given numbers ranging from one to nine and were told that their numbers would determine the order of their matches, but they were not told how. I will announce the participants in the order that they were drawn.

First, Aburame Shino of Konoha!

Second, Nara Shikamaru of Konoha!

Third, Sabaku no Gaara of Suna!

Fourth, Haruno Sakura of Konoha!

Fifth, Akadō Yoroi, of Konoha!

Sixth, Hyūga Neji of Konoha!

Seventh, Sabaku no Temari of Suna!

Eighth, Hyūga Hinata of Konoha!

And, ninth... Uzumaki Naruto of Konoha!"

All the participants received a smattering of applause from everyone, other than Naruto, who received mutters and a few shouts from the Konoha contingent. The Namikaze heir shrugged it off, but some of his fellow genin looked on in disbelief, not understanding how Naruto was so generally disliked.

"So, having had ample time to decide on their strategies, I will now announce the first match's participants. Aburame Shino, make your way to the arena floor!"

The stoic genin trudged to the floor, hands in his pockets.

"And now, Nara Shikamaru, make your way to the arena floor!"

The lazy shadow-manipulator had to be forced to the battleground by his teammates, where he eyed Shino warily. The crowd started murmuring at the unsurprising lineup, but were soon interrupted by-

"And now, Sabaku no Gaara, make your way to the arena floor!"

The mutters fell to silence, before being replaced with full-on cheers. The two shocked Konoha genin looked on as Gaara floated to the middle of the stadium in a cloud of sand.

"That's right, ladies and gentlemen, as there are nine participants, we will be having three-way matches. Just as no ninja battle is ever on entirely equal footing, so does no good exam have the same conditions for each battle. The three of you will fight until one emerges as the clear victor, be that by my executive decision, forfeit, or death. Begin!"

Shino and Shikamaru leapt back as quickly as they could, while Gaara merely lingered in the centre, sand lazily whipping around him. The two Konoha genin shared a look of obvious intent; they would focus on the larger threat first before determining which of the two of them would become the victor.

Shino leapt forward, unleashing a surprisingly high level of taijutsu against Gaara's sand defence, but his skills were nowhere near on the level of Lee's. A hand of sand grasped Shino by the torso and crushed-

Only for the corpse to dissolve into bugs, which flew back to their hidden owner. As Gaara followed the trail to the real Shino, Shikamaru struck, throwing explosive notes tied to kunai in strategic points along Gaara's sand wall. The notes erupted into concussive flame, throwing parts of Gaara's sand to the side, and Shikamaru's shadow rushed through the gap, becoming one with Gaara's shadow and granting Shikamaru control over the jinchūrikki.

"Now, Shino!" he shouted.

Shino's bugs descended upon the Suna genin, siphoning as much chakra as they could in the short period of confusion while Gaara got used to not being able to move his body. Within seconds, however, Shino's bugs started to wither and die, falling to the ground in their dozens.

"I am unable to make any contribution," Shino intoned. "Proctor, I forfeit."

As Shino made his way out of the arena, Gaara's sand regained its sentience and shot towards Shikamaru. Before it could crush him, the pineapple-haired boy shouted out his forfeiture as well, and Genma pulled him out of the path of a devastating sand spear.

"I'll allow that because you were already committed to the attack," Genma said. "… I think. But I won't give you the benefit of the doubt again. Winner, Sabaku no Gaara!"

The two remaining genin moved to their seats with about the same level of enthusiasm.

"And now, you may have guessed it," Genma said, addressing the audience. "Will Haruno Sakura, Akadō Yoroi, and Hyūga Neji make their way to the arena!"

The three Konoha genin marched to the floor, Yoroi glaring at Neji.

"You killed my teammate," he growled. "I'm going to get you for that."

Neji merely snorted.

"Two clanless losers. Must I really demean myself so far as to bother with you? You are both fated to lose; it might be best to simply give up now."

"Maybe I'll lose, but I'll try my best to take out one of those eyes in the process, pretty boy," Yoroi snarled. He looked to Sakura to try and form an unspoken alliance, but she simply looked resolute, as if she was already planning strategies.

"Second match, begin!"

Yoroi, sensing that Sakura wasn't on his side, threw a hasty genjutsu at Sakura to keep her out of the way. The genjutsu was intended to affect her perception of space, so that she would wander around in circles and be an easy prey for later. Neji observed the chakra flow in Sakura's brain change and snorted as the pink-haired genin fell prey to such a simple genjutsu.

"Pathetic," he snorted.

"You don't have time to criticise others, bastard," Yoroi yelled, throwing himself at the Hyūga. He began with a peculiar taijutsu style that used a slapping motion, seeming to aim for the most surface area possible. Neji easily weaved out of the way, and aimed a chakra-charged palmstrike at the other genin's stomach-

Who caught the hand, causing the chakra to disappear. Neji looked on in shock as the genin grabbed his other wrist, preventing the use of the Gentle Fist style.

"Not such a high-and-mighty Hyūga now, are we?" Yoroi mocked, as Neji was slowly drained of chakra.

"Interesting technique," Neji commented. "But you clearly weren't paying any attention in my last match." His chakra flared and Yoroi went stumbling back, cradling both of his hands as if burnt.

"I can release chakra from any of my tenketsu," Neji said. "Blocking my hands does not stop me."

He followed up with a strike to the head which knocked the other genin unconscious. Genma signalled the medical team to retrieve the boy as Neji turned to Sakura.

"This won't even be a challenge," he boasted, as he stalked towards the kunoichi. He strutted towards her and threw a chakra-coated palmstrike to her head, hoping to rattle a few of her brain cells into action. Just as the strike was about to connect, Sakura lurched backwards and avoided the strike, throwing a chakra strike to his hepatic portal vein, before following up with several strikes that closed his chakra system down to a mere trickle. As he lay panting on the ground, he looked at the victorious kunoichi.

"Gentle Fist? How? You were fated to-"

"I was fated to nothing. That wasn't the Gentle Fist; it was Snake Style. Even though the Hyūga are the only ones with the eyes to see individual tenketsu, any half-decent medical student can estimate where they are. And I literally just beat you with one eye closed," she said, pointing a thumb to her covered eye." Think about that before you look down on ninja without clans.

Genma announced Sakura as the winner, and the crowd erupted into applause; the most that had been heard so far. The civilians loved the idea of a civilian-born ninja defeating the prodigy of Konoha's (now) most famous and prominent clan. Many of the ninja watching enjoyed seeing a Hyūga simply getting his ass handed to him. Really, only the Hyūga and a few others in the crowd looked disappointed with the results.

Naruto gave his teammate a thumbs up as he, Hinata, and Temari made their way to the battlefield. He'd sparred with her enough to know when she was faking, but her drunken staggering while she had pretended to be under the effects of the genjutsu had nearly fooled even him. She smiled as he passed her, and the final trio of genin gathered in the middle.

"Third match, begin!"

Naruto and Hinata leapt back as Temari opened with a burst of chakra-laden wind, Naruto countering with a smaller wind technique and Hinata simply anchoring herself to the ground with chakra.

"Shall we take her down first, Hinata-chan?" Naruto called.

The Hyūga heiress nodded confidently, with only the smallest trace of a blush on her face. Either her training had focused heavily on emotional conditioning, or she was completely in the zone. Naruto burst forward, throwing football-sized fireballs at the Suna wind mistress to the point where she had to bat a few aside with her fan.

"Combination Technique: Ash Cloud Technique!"

Naruto spat out earth and fire chakra, creating a choking mist that could burn the skin upon contact. Temari quickly replaced herself with part of one of the trees to the side of the arena, but Hinata had positioned herself there under cover of Naruto's ash cloud. With merely a handful of chakra strikes, the wind mistress was incapacitated and only the two Konoha genin were left.

"Amazing work, Hinata-chan," Naruto commented from a distance. "I can really see you worked hard this month. Watching you was like seeing beauty in motion."

Hinata dipped her head, focusing on keeping her mixed emotions suppressed.

"Could you look at me? I'd hate to take advantage of you while you weren't looking."

Hinata blushed mildly at the innuendo, but met Naruto's eyes with a tremulous confidence. That was when Naruto struck. He used his eye to weave a shared-mind illusion, the only one he was confident would be able to fool Hinata's eyes. To Hinata's view, the crowd and stadium faded away to be replaced with a dim bedroom, with Naruto standing right in front of her.

"I hate it when we fight, Hinata-chan," Naruto murmured, his breath hot in her ear. "But I love it when we make up afterwards."

Hinata gave a low moan of appreciation as his hands encircled her waist. She daintily reached her hands back to cover his, grasping them and guiding them to her rear. Naruto paused in surprise momentarily, not expecting the shy kunoichi to be so clear in what she wanted. Recovering, he gave the girl a light squeeze before collecting her in his hands and pulling her up into the air. She squeaked, wrapping her legs around his middle and pulling their cores together. As she felt the growing hardness between his legs, her lips crashed down onto his as they met in a flurry of passion. Both were inexperienced but enthusiastic, battling in a clash of lips and tongue. As joy wracked Hinata's body she lurched to the side, pulling Naruto off-balance and sending them both crashing to the bed. The two lovers were thrown apart by the landing and as Hinata lifted her head to sit up, a pair of hands roughly pushed her back to the bed by her shoulders.

"Tell me you want this," he murmured, ice-blue eyes boring into her white.

"I want this so much."

She writhed in ecstasy as he trailed kisses down her jaw, applying gentle suction to her jugular and trailing further down, past her collarbone and to the hem of her dress. With barely a pause, he took hold of the offending garment and tore it in two. The rip spread from the V of the dress down to her stomach. Naruto's mouth followed, kissing down the irregular trail left by his efforts. When he reached her stomach his tongue made circles around her belly button, licking down further and ripping the rest of the dress out of the way.

Lying half-in and half-out of a ruined dress with only a bar and panties hiding her full form from her long-time crush, Hinata reddened in embarrassment, only stopping when Naruto reassured her by moving back up to face-level and giving her an approving kiss.

Running his tongue along the seam between bra and skin, Naruto's head was forced into Hinata's chest as she clutched his hair and reflexively pulled her towards him. Head smothered in her cleavage, Naruto tried to grab her midriff for purchase to force his head up, but the white-eyed heiress was holding tight. Trying a different tack, he ran his fingers down her body, passing her centre and wrapping around the sides of her thighs, fingers curling around the back of her legs. He lightly dug his fingers into the sensitive skin and teased a path along-

"Ah!" she moaned, barking out in subdued release. She increased the pressure on Naruto's head before limply letting go.

The world around them started to fade away, Hinata's climax forcing chakra through her system and disrupting the illusion. As the murmuring crowd and imposing arena structure made their way back into vision, Hinata stared at Naruto in growing horror.

Seizing his opportunity, Naruto gave her a foxy grin and an obvious wink. Mind racing, Hinata's body did the only thing it could, dropping limply to the ground, unconscious.

"Uh… Winner, Uzumaki Naruto by… forfeit?" Genma announced, letting the spectators of the arena reveal their mixed receptions to the blond ninja's victory. As Naruto made his way back to the seating area and Hinata was carried away by medics, he caught the gaze of Hinata's teacher, who was staring at him with a look of disapproval tinged with respect. Sakura slapped him on the head as he sat down next to her.

"You did something perverted to her, didn't you?"

"Uh… If you mean using our shared-mind illusion to engage in a bit of foreplay…"

"Ew! I'm going to beat you into the ground for that!"

"Can we take out Gaara together first?" he asked.

"I guess. You're getting a five minute breather. Plan?"

"Stall. Give me five minutes and then I can go toe to toe with him."

"Okay. Oh, looks like Ino wants to talk to you. Hey Ino!"

"Sakura," the blonde kunoichi said as she sat next to them. "Well done; I'm in no way surprised that I lost, having seen that. And Naruto! You've both come so far from the Academy; I'm a little jealous. What's your secret?"

The two Team 7 genin shared a glance.

"We were awakened to the realities of ninja life early. That was our motivation."

Ino nodded, head bowed in a silent tribute to their lost teammate.

"I was wondering, would you like to train together after this is over? I know we're not on the same team, but-"

"I'd love to," Naruto interrupted. "No need to sell yourself short. I'd actually like to test how some of my genjutsu work on somebody with knowledge of mind control techniques, so don't feel like you won't be contributing. Let's have a celebratory meal after the exams and sort it all out then."

"Cool," Ino chirped. "Oh, looks like your rest break is up. Good luck you two; I'm obviously rooting for you."

Genma called for the three victors to make their way to the middle. After a brief pause to make sure they were ready, he called the beginning of the match and leapt away.

Naruto disappeared in a puff of smoke and Sakura charged at Gaara, fist raised. He didn't bother to move, as always, and a sheet of sand flicked upwards to meet Sakura's fist. Just as she connected with the wall, she released the chakra she had stored in her fist. It exploded outwards and the sand wall shattered like glass, allowing her entry into Gaara's sand cocoon. Before the red-haired genin could get over his shock, she grabbed him by the lapel and swung him out across the stadium. The crowd 'ooh'ed as his sand was left behind and he flew away to crash into the stadium wall. Sakura chased him down and got another crack in at his stomach before he recovered and his sand moved back in to guard. Sakura leapt to the side as Gaara's sand attacked with a giant drill made of sand, but it struck in the exact opposite direction from the genin's position. Sakura backed away as Gaara systematically destroyed the terrain, chasing a phantom enemy.

"Is that enough time?" she shouted. "He'll break through the illusion soon."

As she said that, Gaara's irritation pumped demonic chakra through his system and purged Sakura's genjutsu from his coils. He caught sight of his prey and sand closed in from all directions-

Only to explode outwards as an invisible cone of concussive force flickered into being around Sakura, leaving her completely untouched.

"Just enough time, Sakura," Naruto spoke from behind her. Despite only murmuring, his voice vibrated with a deep timbre and every person in the crowd was able to hear him. Sakura retreated as the sand attacked the newly-appeared blond, but he weaved through the spears and crushing hands with the bare minimum of effort, occasionally batting away kilos of sand with a light tap. His eyes weren't even open as he advanced upon Gaara, baring his back to Sakura in absolute trust.

Gaara's sand was all recalled to its controller, forming a rotating sphere of grinding particles that shot at Gaara's opponent. Before the sand could even come close, Naruto opened his eyes, left eye focused intently upon the redhead. With a lazy sweep of his hand, thumb and pinky closed in an obscure handseal, Gaara's sand fell impotently to the ground, the chakra holding it together gone.

The Suna genin looked at his fellow jinchūrikki in fear as the mismatched eyes bored into him. One was bright orange, slitted by a black horizontal bar as a pupil. The other… six concentric circles, glowing an eerie purple, rotating ominously.

Gaara had no frame of reference for the eyes, all he knew was that the monster inside him screamed in fear, pumping demonic chakra into his system in an attempt to help him flee. But members of the audience noticed.

"The Rinnegan," the Kazekage muttered, sending a discrete signal to his operative to await further instruction. "To know Konoha had the most powerful of all dōjutsu. You really have been keeping this one under your hat."

"We felt it the best occasion to reveal it," Hiruzen commented, making it up as he went along. The big reveal had shocked him as much as the Kazekage. He twitched a finger and a masked ANBU approached him, whispering something in the Hokage's ear.

"Rinnegan?" Jiraiya mouthed, as the viewing screen in the border defence unit zoomed in on the genin's eyes. "Nagato…"

Before any of the other ninja manning the post could react, Jiraiya had darted away towards the arena, intentions unknown.

At the very same location, Gaara was beginning his transformation into the demonic form, with giant limbs formed out of sand suspending him in the air.

"Mother will consume you, blood, eyes and all," he ranted, nearly frothing at the mouth.

'_No, idiot_,' Mother hissed at him. '_Flee! Flee while you can_!'

Apparently Gaara still had some control, as a gargantuan arm crashed down on Naruto, only to be blocked… by an interlocking dome of wood.

"Wood Release: Four-Pillar Prison Technique!" Naruto shouted, as chakra-laden timber burst from the ground and warped into a binding cage, the exact copy of the prison confining the Kyūbi.

The crowd was stunned to silence, this new development interrupting any thought, positive or negative, that they might have had. Before any of the crowd could shout in reaction, a lone voice rung through the silence.

"He can use Wood Release, just like the First Hokage! Wood Techniques were how the First defeated the Kyūbi. The fox will never break free from Naruto, because he has the Shodaime's will of fire burning within him!" Ichiraku Teuchi sat down, accepting the stares of the arena without shame. One of the ANBU members at Sarutobi's side moved to carry out the punishment for breaking the Third's law, but the Hokage halted him with a hand on the shoulder.

"It is true," he said, voice cutting through the murmurs surrounding Teuchi's proclamation. "I enacted a law, the punishment of which should be execution, stating that the circumstances surrounding Uzumaki Naruto's birth should never be repeated. But that time has passed, and I must repeal the law. Uzumaki Naruto is the jinchūrikki of the Kyūbi, wielder of the Rinnegan and Mokuton bloodline limits. The last male member of the Senju clan and the true inheritor of my personal techniques. With such a strong connection to the first three Hokages, it should be of no surprise to you to learn that he has a connection to the Fourth as well. Namikaze Minato, his father."

The crowd erupted, merchants from Iwa screaming and beginning to flee, Konoha ninja screaming their disbelief, while the civilians that had mistreated their hero's son cried in shame. As the pandemonium unwound, white feathers started to drift down from the sky, enveloping the people of the stadium.

"Damn it, I told him to wait," the Kazekage cursed. "Well then Hiruzen, I have a need for you."

Before the ANBU guard could react, the Kazekage had grabbed his Konoha counterpart and manhandled him to a nearby roof where they were surrounded by a barrier of purple energy.

"I can see your plans have hardly grown in subtlety, Orochimaru," Sarutobi commented, as he pulled off his robes to reveal his old battle armour. "Quite disappointing."

"So you knew, sensei? I shouldn't be surprised," he laughed. The Kazekage's face was ripped off to reveal the same pale visage that had so recently faced Naruto.

"You attack the Kyūbi jinchūrikki on Konoha soil and don't expect us to improve our defences? Jiraiya caught wind of increased troop movements here in the last month, when he should have been training my successor. He's reinforced the barriers around the village so that they might actually give pause to anyone below jōnin level. What makes you possibly think this invasion will work?"

"You misunderstand me," the traitor said, grinning. "This is entirely personal. I wanted the opportunity to fight you one-on-one and I took it. Of course, now that I have the opportunity I think I'll make things easier for myself."

The Snake Sannin flipped through a long series of handseals before Hiruzen could cut him off, crashing his hands to the ground. Two coffins rose from the rooftop, emblazoned with the numbers one and two.

"No, you didn't!" Sarutobi shouted in disbelief.

"Of course I did. It was in the Forbidden Scroll of Sealing, so I took it. The Second Hokage was a genius, and I'm glad to give you the opportunity to meet him again."

The two Hokages emerged from their coffins looking discombobulated.

"Sarutobi? You got old!" the Second mused, as the First continued to look blank. Orochimaru plunged a kunai into the First's head and his eyes glazed. The Sannin moved to do the same to the Second - but was interrupted by a hail of kunai and a small package of concentrated fury throwing itself at him.

"Uzumaki?" Orochimaru pondered. "How did you get here?"

"I may not have mastered the Hiaraishin," he said. "But I've altered my replacement technique to work through space-time rather than just line-of-sight. My clone has been with the old man since I revealed my Rinnegan."

Orochimaru looked outside the barrier to where the ANBU that had been talking to Sarutobi was sitting in a meditative pose.

"Oh, the ANBU from before? Why was he with sensei?"

"When I activated my Rinnegan I was able to see through your disguise. Its perceptive qualities trump even the Sharingan. So I sent a clone to Jiji to warn him."

"And it henged into a lizard and stayed with me ever since," Sarutobi butted in. "Now sensei, would you be kind enough to join me and help me kill this traitor?"

"If you'll explain what's happening, Saru, then fine," the white-haired man said, avoiding his brother and making his way to his old student.

"This is Orochimaru. He was my prized student. But he began to dabble in the esoteric arts, eventually leading to experiments on humans, citizens of Konoha. When I confronted him, he attacked me and fled Konoha. It has been around ten years since that happened."

"So, a traitor, coward and butcher. Noted," the old Hokage said. "And the kid?"

"Your successor," Naruto growled, eyes firmly locked with Orochimaru. "See?"

He took the Raijin in his hand and pumped it with wind and fire chakra again until it formed the hissing white flame.

"The Kōjin, my development based on your notes. My space-time replacement is also based on your Hiraishin notes."

"A powerful successor. I approve, although your eye unnerves me. I never did like doujutsu… So I take it you haven't figured out the secret?"

"No! And it's driving me crazy!"

"You'll get it, I'm sure. But you won't thank me for it when you do."

"Enough talk!" Orochimaru shouted. "Hashirama, attack them!"

The First Hokage's arm turned into a flowing river of wood, with branches shooting out to try and spear the three combatants. As his enemies evaded, Orochimaru flashed through the same set of handseals again.

"No, sensei, he's about to summon the Fourth Hokage! We must stop him!" Sarutobi shouted, as Tobirama turned to react.

"Wait, you're telling me there was a Fourth-"

"Too late!" Orochimaru cackled, as a coffin forced its way out of the roof, emblazoned with the number four. Sarutobi threw a hail of kunai and shuriken at it, but the First blocked them with a wall of wood.

"What… where am I?" the Fourth Hokage asked as he stepped out of the coffin. "I thought I'd be in the Shinigami's stomach forever. Wait-" he said, catching sight of Naruto. "You!"

Before Orochimaru could plant his control kunai in the Hokage's skull, Minato flashed out of his range with a burst of speed and reappeared in front of Naruto, planting a fist into his stomach. Naruto burst into smoke as the original replaced himself with a clone and backed away.

"What the fuck, man?" Naruto shouted, back-pedalling. "I'm your son; why do you keep attacking me?"

"Oh, you found my little present, did you?" the older blond leered, squaring up to his son. "You're no son of mine, you monster."

Orochimaru threw a tri-pronged kunai to Minato and the old Hokage caught it, twirling it with an evil grin.

"I will erase my mistake, once and for all. Kage Kunai no Jutsu!"

He threw the kunai, which multiplied into dozens of projectiles mid-air. Naruto dodged with minimal effort, but the kunai planted themselves into the ground.

"Checkmate," Minato said. He flashed out of existence in a shock of yellow, instantly teleporting behind Naruto, kunai swinging to sever his jugular-

But Tobirama was there, sword drawn and clashing with Minato.

"I don't know what happened to the Hokage after I died," he said. "But that boy is the successor of the Senju and my clan's hope. Konoha must have fallen on hard times if the Hokage have taken to killing their children."

"He's no son of mine!" Minato cried. "My son died!"

He flashed out of his deadlock with the Senju and flashed back to Naruto's side, only to be blocked by Tobirama again.

"You're a one-trick pony," the Second taunted. "I developed that technique you stole. But what else can you do?"

Minato broke free and planted a Rasengan into the Second's midriff, the spiralling sphere of chakra blowing his torso apart and giving him free access to murder his son. The kunai was promptly flicked back into his hand and it swept in an arc faster than Naruto could react to, slicing through his neck and cutting his carotid artery.

"Guh!" he gurgled, as he grabbed his throat and fell to the ground.

"Naruto!" Sarutobi screamed, as he summoned Enma and shot the staff at his successor, stopping the man from following up on his strike.

"The Kyūbi took your wife, Sarutobi-sama," Minato said. "Why are you protecting it?"

"Naruto is not the Kyūbi!" Hiruzen shouted back in anguish.

Orochimaru had directed Hashirama to duel his brother and was watching the exchange in glee. Tobirama's body had reformed and he was in a deadlock with his brother, his cutting water techniques slicing through some of the wood techniques, but failing when confronted with some of Hashirama's stronger wooden constructs.

The Snake Sannin was in utter glee at the way things were unfolding. He had wanted to taunt and upset his former teacher before killing him, but seeing Minato trying to kill his son had caused Sarutobi more mental anguish than Orochimaru could ever manage. He stayed his hand, letting the two duels between Hokages continue uninterrupted.

Naruto writhed on the ground as his neck healed, chakra from his heaven seal pumping through him and invigorating him, giving him a darker tinge to his skin and letting him stagger to his feet again.

"You've perverted my gift, Naruto-kun," Orochimaru wondered. "It was meant to give me power over you, but you've adapted it for your own ends. This cannot stand. It appears to be the two of us again, squaring off. Four Hokages fighting each other and us; the ones who wanted to be Hokage but were cursed never to reach that goal. Your father hates you. I will kill the Third, and who will take his place? Jiraiya or Tsunade, both of whom hate you. I see so many similarities between us, but I will live forever, while you will die. But I will have that eye of yours before I go."

Naruto dove out of the way of Orochimaru's Kusanagi, as the Sannin's sword extended over twenty feet in nearly an instant. He flashed through handseals and smashed his hand to the ground.

"Summoning Technique!"

Ma and Pa burst into being, both taking into account the situation and hopping to Naruto's shoulders.

"Who are the enemies, Naruto-child?" Ma asked.

"The snake, the First and the Fourth."

"Understood," Pa said. "Good to see you again, Tobirama-child."

"Likewise," the Second said. "I created this resurrection technique and I can disrupt its effects over my brother. But I and the Fourth don't have control seals, so we will exist until our chakra runs out or our souls are removed. Hiruzen, do you have your successor ready?"

Sarutobi gave a sad look at Naruto as he nodded.

"Yes. Naruto, I would recommend you leave Konoha once we're done here. Jiraiya will protect this village but will do you no favours. You will be lucky if he lets you live."

"Telling your student to go missing-nin?" Tobirama asked. "What has become of you?"

"You've seen Minato's reaction to Naruto," the Third said. "Jiraiya is little better. Naruto, you are our hope. You must survive." He started flashing through handseals.

"Too late!" Orochimaru yelled, as he threw himself at Naruto, sword extended. Just before the snake connected, the clone Naruto had left outside the barrier disappeared, nature chakra leaving it and flooding into Naruto.

"Shinra Tensei!"

A burst of gravity shot out of the blond, throwing Orochimaru into the First Hokage and hitting everyone inside the barrier to differing degrees. Sarutobi had just used the Dead Demon Consuming Seal to extract the soul of the First Hokage, letting him disappear into dust. He grabbed his past student as he flew past, getting dragged along with him. The gravity wave threw the Second and Fourth into the barrier, where they were burnt to pieces before quickly reforming.

"We'll distract the Fourth!" Ma and Pa yelled, leaving Naruto and shooting piercing water jutsu at the reforming Hokage.

"I can't take all of his soul!" Sarutobi shouted over the din. "But I'm taking your arms, Orochimaru. You'll never use jutsu again!"

Orochimaru's head snaked out and launched itself at his teacher, ripping out the old man's throat. Sarutobi died with a gurgling chuckle, his soul floating away along with the First Hokage's and his treacherous student's ability to use ninja techniques.

"No!" Orochimaru screamed, feeling his arms become limp and useless.

Minato took the lapse in Ma and Pa's concentration to flash beside his son once more and try to gut him.

"Human Path: Absorption Soul Technique!"

Naruto shot his hand straight behind him and pulled. Instinctively, he'd accessed the power his eyes had over the soul, finding the anchor that kept Minato tied to reality and stripping it away. The Fourth Hokage's body collapsed into dust as the four survivors looked on.

"Use it on me as well, Naruto-kun," Tobirama said. "I do not wish to stay in this impure realm much longer. You will make our clan proud."

He walked towards his successor and placed the Raijin in Naruto's left hand, while placing the boy's right on his chest. Naruto found the same feeling and pulled, letting the Second's soul flow into him and the fake body dissolve.

"You-" Orochimaru said, as he watched the boy defeat his technique. "Bodyguards! We're leaving!"

The purple barrier disappeared as the four people holding the technique flashed into the centre of the fight.

"Shall we engage, Orochimaru-sama?" the red-haired woman asked.

"No. We are leaving. The invasion is over."

His entourage picked him up and flashed away, leaving Ma, Pa and Naruto alone with the dead body of their Hokage.

"Jiji!" Naruto shouted, moving towards the Hokage, to see if he could help. Before he could make it, a whole entourage of shinobi appeared on the rooftop.

"That's enough from you," Jiraiya growled, standing between Naruto and the Third. "Wanting to defile his body after you killed him? I'm not surprised."

"I can help him!" Naruto screamed, as sage mode left him and blood streamed down from his eye.

"Over my dead body," the older man muttered.

"Leave him be, Jiraiya-child," Pa chided. "He was involved in a battle between four Kage and Orochimaru. Do you think you could have done any better?"

"That remains to be investigated," Jiraiya said. "He will be taken into custody until this matter is settled. As Hokage-elect I order this to be done. Team Ro?"

Yūgao and the others appeared around Naruto, grasping him by the arms.

"Sorry kid," she whispered. Naruto clutched his head in agony and fell to the floor, surprising the group.

"What? You saw his flames of youth! He would not murder our most youthful Hokage!" Gai screamed, as he appeared on the rooftop.

"Yeah, did you see him using Wood Release? Maybe he should be Hokage instead!" a voice shouted from the crowd.

"Enough!" Jiraiya yelled, flaring his chakra and killing intent, causing all but the strongest of ninja to sweat with fear. "Only the Hokage and active superiors in the field can authorise executions, so Uzumaki-san will merely be held for questioning until we settle the matter. He is not being accused of killing Sarutobi-sama, but we do need to know what happened inside that barrier."

With that, most of the ardent objectors stopped, realising that they couldn't really argue with that. Naruto was escorted away by Team Ro before any more objections could be heard.

They appeared at the Torture and Interrogation building, manhandling him through the building until they reached Ibiki.

"Oh, hey kid, how's it going?" he asked, wiping blood from his hands. "I just got back from the action myself, why are you here?"

"Jiraiya-sama has ordered for him to be kept here," Yūgao said. "The Hokage was killed and Naruto saw everything."

"And he didn't just debrief you? What game's he playing? Still, I guess he's the next in line until the council gets their shit together. Put him in interrogation room three; it's the nicest we got."

Naruto was bundled into the room, more gently than before. As Team Ro left, Inami slipped her Boar mask off and gave Naruto a kiss on the cheek, and Yūgao stayed inside as the door was closed.

"Now listen up, Naruto. There's a regime change happening and you've been caught in the middle of it. Sarutobi-sama knew that change was coming, and he didn't think he'd be around for much longer. As the Hokage's personal guard, we're honour-bound to follow the wishes of the Hokage, even past death. As Jiraiya-sama hasn't become Hokage yet, Sarutobi-sama's orders are still absolute. And he told us to remain loyal to you."

"What?" Naruto asked, confused by the turnabout.

"He knew Jiraiya was against you, but didn't know to what extent. He had several plans in action and we have to choose between them. Did he tell you anything?"

"He told me to run… that Jiraiya would probably kill me… that I was his hope."

"Plan C. Damn it. I'll need to get busy. You stay here. Ibiki and Anko are the highest in T&I, but loyal to Sarutobi as well. If they interrogate you, they'll keep it as light as they can. You didn't do anything wrong, but you need to stay here for a while. Hold out. I need four days."

With that, she disappeared and closed the door.

Naruto spent a few hours just staring at himself in the mirror. The left side of his face, around his eye, was caked with blood, and his eye was bloodshot and raw. Three tomoe stared back at him, circling lazily. He picked off as much blood as he could and wiped some away with his sleeve. For his eye, he channelled some water chakra to dampen the sleeve, but as soon as he did so a sealing matrix kicked in.

"Trying to escape, eh kid?" a cruel voice asked, and Jiraiya appeared in the corner of the room.

"I'm trying to clean my face!" the boy protested, as he brandished his moistened sleeve. The senior shinobi grabbed the offending limb and twisted it, cracking the wrist and making Naruto scream in pain.

"Not what I saw," he grinned, cruelly. "I saw a murderer attempting to escape. By the end of the week the council will have made a decision on the next Hokage and I will be able to order your execution. Killing you sooner than that will raise too many questions, especially with sensei announcing your heritage in front of the whole village."

"But why? Why do you want me dead? Why you and my father?"

Jiraiya stared for a long time into the boy's eyes, not at all scared of the possibility of Naruto casting an ocular genjutsu.

"You really don't know, do you? What you are. You are not a human. You cannot be reasoned with. You are the Kyūbi in human form. And I will kill you and take my chances if you reform into a fox. Until then, enjoy the room. I thought your sympathisers would have you placed here."

A seal matrix kicked in and Naruto was thrown to the floor by the increased gravity, as different seals leeched his chakra away.

"Oh, and we can't have you lying still enough to access nature chakra," he said, as the floor sparked, electrocuting Naruto. "Maybe after a week of this your chakra will be gone and I won't have to worry about the Kyūbi coming back after all. Ja ne!"

As Naruto writhed in pain, his healing factor suppressed by all the chakra flowing from him, he caught sight of the wall-length mirror once more. With a last surge of effort, he caught sight of his Sharingan eye and the tomoe started to spin, weaving an illusion that was turned back on him and sent him into glorious unconsciousness.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: So there's Sarutobi's death and the Chūnin exam finals. It happened. I know a lot of you aren't going to like Jiraiya's behaviour, but he thinks it's completely justified. He was always funny and a bit ridiculous, but he grew up in the middle of a war. This is the face he shows to his enemies.<strong>

**Apologies about not uploading last week. Sorry/not sorry; work's very busy and the woman I'm dating is leaving the country soon, so my priority is seeing her as much as possible in the next two weeks. That being said, I'm going to immediately upload another (short) chapter for y'all to chew on.**

**And yeah, the semi-sex scene was a bit cliché. Believe me, I expected better from myself. But Hinata's a teenage girl and most of this stemmed from her fantasies, which were driven by whatever Mills and Boon drivel she'd been able to get her hands on. That's my excuse for crappy writing.**


	9. Futility

I don't own Naruto.

* * *

><p>"What do you mean, he's been imprisoned?" Kakashi bellowed. "I was given assurances that Naruto would be looked after once Sarutobi-sama had passed on!"<p>

"Those assurances were made in the assumption that Naruto would not be implicated in his death!" Jiraiya returned. "Two Kage enter a blurred barrier that is then filled with tree roots - tree roots that only two ninja in this village could produce, with the other being fully accounted for. A traitor, genin and dead Hokage leave. Anything could have happened, and Naruto is our best chance to figure out what."

"By debriefing him, yes, not by torturing him! He hasn't seen the light of day since he was arrested. And he wasn't the only witness. Your elder toad summons saw everything, and by all accounts even told you to let Naruto go. Why aren't you asking them?"

"The way I use my summons is not to be questioned," Jiraiya mumbled. "Just as my judgement is not to be. I appreciate good criticism, Kakashi, but you have had your say. I outrank you, and this is a matter I will not move on."

Kakashi left the Hokage's Office, looking murderous as he did so. He was joined by Sakura and Haku as he left, and he saw Iruka shoot a poisonous glance through the open doors as they passed the mission desk.

"Still imprisoned?" the chūnin teacher asked.

"Yes," Kakashi said. "And it looks to stay that way. Have you heard from Yūgao?"

Iruka nodded, and Team 7 left quickly.

"What did you mean by that, sensei?" Sakura asked when they reached the outdoors. "When will we see Naruto again?"

"I don't know, Sakura. All I can ask is you to do is to have faith that I'm doing everything I can."

As they walked down the road, a shadowy figure charged past them and slipped a note to Kakashi. The cyclops read it, nodded, and burnt it, all within a few seconds.

"We're going to see Anko," he said. "We've been assigned a C-rank escort mission, starting tomorrow morning. But first, we have something to do."

They made their way to the training ground closest to T&I and waited until the Snake Mistress appeared.

"How goes it?" Kakashi hailed.

"Bad. He's holed up in a sealing matrix of Jiraiya's own design, and I can't make head nor hair of it. All I know is that it's slowly crushing him, draining his chakra, and electrocuting him."

"It's what?" Sakura screeched, as she and Haku looked ready to charge T&I by themselves.

"Enough," Kakashi said. "We can't help him by getting ourselves killed. What else?"

"They're moving him tomorrow. I'm not entirely sure where, but it's going to be underground. They're worried about a rescue attempt."

"And how's that going?"

"We'll all need to move at once. Organising everything will be difficult."

"We have several people on it. And there's a lot of support."

"What, we're planning something?" Sakura sang. "You have to let us help!"

"You two will be helping," Kakashi said. "We aren't going on the mission tomorrow. I'll send shadow clones, two of them to look like you two. After that we're going deep undercover, but staying in Konoha. You'll have to keep quiet and follow me. I'll keep you updated as we go along, but I can't tell you too much unless you're captured."

"That's a real risk?"

"It is if you're discovered in the village once you're meant to be out on a mission."

"So shall I keep on doing the same thing?" Anko asked.

"Hai. Good work. Keep me updated if the snakes say anything."

"I will."

"Come on," Kakashi gestured for his students to follow him. They wound through the residential area of Konoha, finally arriving at a small clan compound that was overgrown with weeds.

Kakashi palmed the door open and led them to the living room, where several ninja were already there.

"Hello Kakashi," Gai said.

"You can be quiet?" Sakura shrieked, pointing at the elite jōnin.

"Shush, Sakura," Yūgao said. "Of course he can. Being loud is his cover."

"Hai, I am loud in all normal situations so that people don't expect me when I remain quiet. While I love training, I am very little like the man you expect me to be. Lee is much the same."

"So your genin team is on board?" Kakashi asked.

"Hai. All of them. Lee is disgusted by the turnabout on his rival. Tenten is a fellow orphan and can sympathise with Naruto's plight. Neji is the interesting one. He wants an opportunity to live away from the thumb of the Main Branch of the Hyūga. He has floated the idea to the other Branch members. They will _all_ support us."

"Over seventy percent of the Hyūga? That's a definite coup for us!"

"Kakashi..." Gai deadpanned. "You do realise it's a coup we're planning, don't you?"

"Oh, not really. We're planning to leave. That's not really a coup, right?"

"We are leaving?" Haku asked. "Who will take us?"

"Wave." Kakashi said. "Wave will have us. From there, who knows? Nobody has ever been able to get to Uzushiogakure since the destruction of the Uzumaki, but Naruto will be able to find us a way in. Then, we rebuild. Wave is within the old boundaries of the Land of Whirlpools, so they will support the recreation of the Village Hidden in the Eddies. Not to mention that Naruto is their hero."

"And I, their villain." Haku stated.

"Don't be so hard on yourself," Kakashi joked. "They never really got the chance to know you."

"So what is everyone else getting round to?" Sakura asked.

"I'm canvassing the ANBU," Yūgao said. "Team Ro is firmly in support of Naruto, with certain other members also trusting the wishes of Sarutobi-sama over Jiraiya, someone who's barely entered the village in the last ten years. The difficult part is persuading them that Sarutobi-sama wanted Naruto-kun's welfare above all else."

"This may help," Kakashi said, pulling an envelope from his pocket. "It was a letter the Third asked me to give to Naruto if he died. Considering the circumstances, I don't think he would mind you showing it around."

Kakashi passed over the envelope and Yūgao opened it, angling it towards the light.

_Naruto-kun,_

_If you are reading this, then I am no longer with you. I know that you've had your doubts about how the higher-ranked ninja of this village feel about you, and I more than understand your hesitance. Jiraiya has decried you as a monster, and Tsunade nearly led to your death. But they do not represent the entirety of what Konoha is, and, though I dread to say it, I feel that the Will of Fire no longer flows within any of my past students. All have abandoned their village in some way, fleeing under the pretences of duty, power, or heartbreak. _

_But the Will of Fire is loyalty, and it is passion. It is courage and it is strength. It is accepting the difficult, working with what you have, protecting the weak, and staying true to your ninja way. And I know that your ninja way is that you will never go back on your word, and I know that you swore to me, as a child, that you would become Hokage._

_You cannot become Hokage. Not with Konoha the way it is._

_Konoha is riddled with disease. Minato, your father, granted far too much power to the ninja and civilian councils. Where they once would have been an advisory board, they are now the de facto rulers of this village. Danzo runs his illegal ROOT organisation from the shadows, serving his own interests under the auspices of serving his village. The civilians and many of the ninja of this village view you as a monster, ignoring the sacrifice you bear for us, every single day of your life._

_So please, leave this place. Take all the good people you can with you, live, and flourish. This village will soon destroy itself, and you shoulder the hopes of all the past Hokages, as well as the ideals they stood for. Hashirama believed in kindness and protecting the weak, something you've acted towards as long as I've known you. Tobirama was a rationalist, and taught me to love and protect the village with everything I had. In this, more than anything, I see him in you too. As a Senju, it is no surprise that you share their values and strengths. And, as a Namikaze, you've shown the capacity to be as collected and cautious as your father at times, while as effervescent when happy as he ever was. And me. Naruto, I consider you my successor in everything, will, techniques, philosophy... You are the person I want to see leading this village, but this village doesn't deserve you yet._

_When the time comes, you will know. When it comes, take back Konoha, take back the hat, and burn away the rot that has eaten at my home. Until then, grow and consolidate. I know you will surpass the others, use your gifts and burdens properly, and become the most exceptional shinobi Konoha has ever seen._

_Always keep your faith. Always burn with the Will of Fire._

_And Naruto, never forget that I loved you like my own grandson. And before I forget, he's your responsibility now._

_Your Jiji,_

_Hiruzen Sarutobi, Third Hokage of the Village Hidden in the Leaves._

_P.S. The Scroll of Sealing is a Senju artefact, and it is yours._

Yūgao put down the piece of paper.

"We can use this."

* * *

><p>Konohamaru burst into the Hokage's office, waving his practice kunai belligerently.<p>

"Let the Boss go!" he yelled, pointing his finger at Jiraiya. "He's going to be Hokage after me; so listen to your future boss!"

With a flick of his fingers, Jiraiya summoned his ANBU escort and had the Sarutobi removed from the room.

"Make sure he doesn't hurt himself," he muttered.

This wasn't how he'd wanted to start the morning. Everybody was still continuing work as usual, but productivity was down. Everybody was subdued, as if they were waiting for a conclusion. But the Fire Lord was coming in two days to confirm the council's selection of Hokage, and Jiraiya was confident he would be supported. After all, the council had no love for Naruto, and plenty of respect for the Sannin.

Still, at least he'd been able to get rid of Kakashi and his team. A month-long escort mission that would get the second-most powerful ninja in the village out of his hair for a while. But that was just about the only blessing he'd had.

The toads were furious. They knew he had Naruto imprisoned. They knew what he was doing to him, as well, as they'd tried to reverse-summon the boy and protect him. Jiraiya had foreseen this and put a contract-disrupting seal into the matrix, but he'd suffered the backlash. Ma and Pa had managed to find their way to Konoha without being summoned, and they'd given him an earful, with things nearly coming to blows. They'd finally retreated, swearing to summon the council of toads to determine their response. They were bound by old laws to only intervene in the human realm in very narrow circumstances, something he thanked his lucky stars for on an hourly basis.

"The council meeting is in ten minutes, Jiraiya-sama," one of the ANBU said. "You asked me to remind you."

"Thank you, Lizard," he said. The bulky man lifted himself from the desk and plodded down to the council chambers, the weight of the world on his shoulders.

"Alright, settle down, I'm here now," he said, quieting the low murmurs permeating the council chambers. "Starting points, Koharu?"

"First point, the negotiations with Suna, Jiraiya-sama. They have requested the return of the Kazekage's children, Baki-san and the others. Considering the peace treaty we're drafting..."

"Denied. We cannot appear weak. With those four removed from them, and the casualties from the invasion, their combat power is down to a minimum. They have shown that they cannot be trusted; we cannot have them with significant military power on top of that. Thoughts?"

"They betrayed us," Inuzuka Tsume said. "They deserve everything that's coming to them."

"While it appears to be a logical reaction, perhaps our lack of mercy will be treated with contempt and rebellion rather than acceptance," Shibi murmured.

"I agree," Shikaku said. "We could have them as an uncertain ally, but with this we will certainly have them as future enemies."

Inoichi simply looked uncomfortable, and Chōza neglected to speak.

"I am in agreement with Jiraiya-sama," Hiashi said. "Showing even a kernel of weakness will let them think they can walk all over us."

"A vote, then. All for keeping the Suna ninja and denying the request?"

Tsume and Hiashi's hands went up, as well as Jiraiya's, Koharu and Homura's, and Danzō's single functional arm. Many of the other ninja and civilian members voted.

"All against?"

Shibi and Shikaku's hands were the only ones to be raised.

"Abstentions?"

Everyone who hadn't voted, Inoichi and Choūza included, raised their hands.

"So, by an overwhelming vote, the Suna prisoners will not be returned. What else?"

"The builders from Wave have backed out, claiming they have funding issues."

"You haven't offered them more money, have you?"

"Of course not. They won't get a ryō more."

"Exactly. Find someone else. What else?"

"The chūnin exams - awarding rank to our genin."

"Now that _is _interesting. The Nara and Aburame heirs showed logical thinking, but didn't get the chance to demonstrate anything more than that. Hyūga Neji and

Akadō Yoroi were slightly unhinged - I doubt they'd pass a psychological screening as they are now. Haruno Sakura showed promise, but she has only been a genin for six months. And there is her teammate's possible influence to think about. She will no doubt be successful in the next exams. The Hyūga heir... well, I'm sorry to be rude Hiashi-san, but her performance was abominable."

"I'm more than aware, Jiraiya-sama," Hiashi said, knuckles whitening.

"And that only leaves our potential murderer. The less said about that, the better. What else?"

"Nothing other than the Hokage selection. Nominations, then voting. As the Hokage-elect, you obviously don't need to be nominated."

"Understood. Any nominations?"

"I nominate Shimura Danzō," Koharu said. "He has the strength and loyalty to Konoha to steer us through these tough times."

"Are you suggesting that I don't?" Jiraiya asked.

"Ne, she just knows more about Danzō-sama's experience," Homura said. "Please don't take it personally; we just have more to draw on."

"Do you need a demonstration?" Jiraiya asked. "I can-"

"I nominate Uzumaki Naruto," Shikaku said, cutting through Jiraiya's challenge.

"What?"

"You saw him subdue a bijū, achieve sage mode, use the Rinnegan and Wood Release, and that's all without using the power of the Kyūbi. He will be unstoppable in a few years, why not put our faith behind him sooner rather than later?"

"Unacceptable," Jiraiya said. "He will never overcome the Kyūbi. It can't be done."

"Sarutobi-sama had the utmost faith in Naruto," Shikaku said. "I just wonder why you don't. Didn't you teach his father? The one who designed his seal?"

Jiraiya turned from the Nara and stared at Koharu.

"The vote. Now."

Koharu administered the vote, with Jiraiya winning a simple majority. A few voted for Naruto, and about a third going for Danzō. But Jiraiya's reputation gave him that much. Now all they needed was the Fire Lord's confirmation.

* * *

><p>"Are we ready?" Kakashi asked his team.<p>

"Hai, Dog-sama," the team chanted. They were splayed around the T&I headquarters, all wearing masks.

"Do we have word from our operatives?"

"The target's location isn't known. He was moved this morning, but our contact has left the security seals lowered."

"Good. We storm the place from the front. Group B from the rear and C and D from the roof. We systematically search the place and see what we can find. Understood?"

"Hai!"

"Okay then, move out."

The six ninja fanned out and approached the building, each of them on high alert.

"Contact!" Cat hissed. Rat disappeared into the shadows to offer support, along with Boar. Toad and Dog 2 moved to guard Cat and Dog while Dog uncovered his eye.

"Jiraiya-sama, a pleasure," Dog drawled.

"The mask hardly does you any favours, Kakashi," the man said. "Your hair and eye are rather obvious."

"You misunderstand, Jiraiya-sama. The mask isn't about hiding identity. The mask is about unity!"

He exploded into action, throwing shuriken in an intricate pattern and charging with his right fist drawn backwards, lightning chakra shooting out of his coils. At the same time, Cat leapt into the Dance of the Crescent Moon, her two shadow clones barrelling into Jiraiya's left and right sides while she attacked from above.

"Ha!" the Sannin yelled, as he dodged to the side, killing one of the shadow clones with a flurry of needles from his hair.

The older man charged chakra into his palm and spun it randomly, forming the Rasengan.

"You shouldn't have come here, traitors."

"You're the traitor," Kakashi shouted, chidori still active as he span on the spot. "Imprisoning a loyal Konoha shinobi without just cause? Sensei's son?"

"That beast isn't Minato's son. He isn't even human. I'm putting him down for the good of the village."

"The Third thought you'd do this. And he didn't think the village was worth saving if you had to do things like this!"

"I was never sensei's favourite. And he had bad judgement in picking them. First, Orochimaru - traitor. Then, Naruto - a danger to us all. My sensei was a great man but it's my responsibility to clean up his messes."

Kakashi glanced over to the T&I building before biting his thumb and rifling through handseals.

_'I hope Gai's having better luck.'_

* * *

><p>"<span>Konoha Whirlwind!<span>"

The taijutsu jōnin's foot broke through yet another wall, revealing another empty cell.

"No! Our youthful friend is nowhere to be seen!"

"But I'm sensing something," one of them said. "A feeling, like a kindred spirit. It's his wood element; I'm sure of it."

"Yosh! Good work, Tenzō-san! We will find him yet. Onwards downwards!"

Gai aimed an axe-kick at the ground they were standing on, making it crumble.

"Eh, Gai-san, we're in the lowest basement level. Kicking might not help."

"Ah, yes! Then we must dig. I will dig all the way down with my fingernails, or I will dig twice as far with my teeth, or I will-"

"Gai-san, I'm an earth user. Maybe it's best if I deal with this."

"Yosh! Even better!"

_'Sigh,'_

* * *

><p>"Are you sure you don't know where they sent the brat?" Anko yelled.<p>

"Hey, I may have worked here for years, but this place was built before my time and designed by the Second Hokage. There could be all sorts of trick rooms and traps. All I know is that we were to assume it was safe and not ask too many questions," Ibiki said.

"Damn it, and just when I hear from the snakes that they've made contact with the toads, but they haven't been able to summon him. The only thing we know for sure is that Jiraiya's main advantage has been taken care of..."

* * *

><p>"Steal one of my pups, will you?" Inuka growled, as the dog boss flung itself at Jiraiya once more, before darting out of the way of a Rasengan. "Why don't you summon Gamabunta to take care of me? Oh wait, you can't!"<p>

"I don't need the toads to deal with you!" Jiraiya growled, as he shot needle hairs at the alpha. The dog wove out of the way and circled back around to Kakashi.

"Call the pack, Kakashi," he growled. "You have my full blessing."

Kakashi's hand plunged to the ground, fuinjutsu kanji spiderwebbing out from the point of contact and exploding into smoke. When it cleared, over fifty dogs were there, all primed and growling at Jiraiya.

"I may need to sit this out," Kakashi said, feeling drowsy.

The pack descended on Jiraiya, forcing the experienced ninja to go through a complicated series of acrobatics before slamming a hand to the ground.

"Earth Release: Swamp of the Underworld!"

Several hounds were caught in the collapsing earth and disappeared, but the onslaught continued. Rat took the opportunity to shoot a senbon needle at Jiraiya's neck, but the Sannin blocked it with a casual shake of his hair.

As Frog and Dog 2 moved to take the centrepoint in the assault, Boar looked anxiously over at the building they were assaulting. Nobody had made the signal yet, and they couldn't hold off the Hokage-elect for much longer.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, in a hidden room in Konoha's Torture and Interrogation building, Naruto's heart beat one last time until it finally gave out.<p> 


	10. Flight

I don't own Naruto.

* * *

><p>One more shock racked through Naruto's body, making his heart shudder, skip, and halt.<p>

_"So I take it you haven't figured out the secret?" the Second Hokage asked. "You'll get it, I'm sure."_

* * *

><p><em>Minato gasped in pain as one of his fingernails was torn off attempting to Body Flicker at even higher speeds.<em>

* * *

><p><em>"A forbidden scroll?" he asked.<em>

_"Yeah, I read it once when I was younger, looking for cool jutsu," Jiraiya laughed. "But there might be something in there to help you out."_

* * *

><p><em>Sarutobi looked on as the young blond rifled through his office.<em>

_'Must this really become a rite of passage for our most promising ninja?' he asked himself._

* * *

><p><em>"I did it!" Minato crowed, looking at his sensei. "But... the trick to it. It isn't... nice."<em>

* * *

><p><em>"Minato! Don't you dare use our son for this!" Kushina shouted.<em>

_"I have to, darling. He's the only way we can stop the Kyūbi."_

* * *

><p><em>As the two lovers lay dying, Minato looked at their son.<em>

_"We can seal the last of our chakra in along with him, to guide him when he's older," Minato said. Kushina nodded weakly and offered up her chakra. Her head then slumped to the side as she passed on. Minato pumped the last of his chakra into his son, but before he was finished, his eyes widened in horror._

_His son had stopped wailing. He'd stopped moving. Minato's hands couldn't feel a pulse. As the last of his chakra left him, he moaned in disbelief. Demonic chakra flushed through his son's body and his eyes flashed red. The yang portion of the Kyūbi's chakra was pulled through the chakra connection Minato had made and joined the yin portion sealed within his son's body._

_'I... I've died for nothing?'_

* * *

><p>The dripping of the sewer, at this point, was music to Naruto's ears. He'd forgotten how much time he'd spent here. Since he'd hypnotised himself in the interrogation room he'd lost track of time, and had ended up going over the memories of the Second and Fourth Hokages. Using the Absorption Soul Technique didn't just give a copy of the memories of the target; it created some sort of short term imprint of the souls. Naruto had been plagued by memories and impressions from the lives of the two men, and it had become difficult to distinguish who was who.<p>

**"Have you pulled yourself out of your funk yet, kid?" **the Kyūbi asked.

"Hrf," he grunted.

A huge excitation flushed through the chakra pipes lining his mindscape, rocking Naruto back and forth.

"What was that?" he asked.

**"You just died, kid," **the fox said. **"Those electric shocks finally stopped your heart."**

"The secret..." Naruto mused.

**"Are you seriously not going to react to this? Wow. And I thought you'd have worked this one out by now."**

"What?"

**"Not what. Who?"**

"Who are you?"

**"Who are you, yes."**

"That's not what... I?"

**"Finally got it? Then rip off this damned seal!"**

Naruto swayed towards the seal and grasped it, pondering his hand. Minato had sealed him to protect him. But Minato had tried to kill him... He squashed the thought and ripped off the seal in its entirety.

**"Yes! Finally!" **the Kyūbi crowed as the cage doors swung open. The gigantic Bijū grinned before dissolving into an amorphous mass of red chakra that flowed into Naruto, burning him from the inside out. As his chakra coils burned with the fury of the world's most powerful demon, he didn't fall unconscious. He did the worst thing possible. He woke up.

* * *

><p>After fifteen minutes of inactivity, Naruto's heart pumped again. The beat was followed by a scream of chakra that could be heard all the way on the surface. Gai, Tenzō, and the rest of their team quickly made their way to the outside, where they were joined by the two other infiltration teams, as well as Kakashi and Team Ro.<p>

"Peacock, what was that?" Kakashi asked, dodging a frenzied blow from Jiraiya.

"Ah, my eternal rival, it was a surge of chakra like I haven't felt since the Kyūbi's attack!"

"Gai, you could have at least tried to keep your identity a secret..." Kakashi moaned.

"No! I was too late!" Jiraiya shouted. "But my backup should be here now."

As he spoke, several other ninja burst onto the scene and took defensive positions around their Hokage-elect. Asuma, Kurenai, Hiashi, Tsume, Koharu, Homura and the Ino-Shika-Cho trio were all there, some looking more enthusiastic than others.

"What is it, Jiraiya-sama?" Hiashi asked.

"These traitors are trying to break into the T&I department and free a prisoner, despite orders to the contrary. And now they're trying to injure me in order to keep their identities secret."

"Secrecy? Ha!" Kakashi said, ripping off his mask. "This was to protect some of our members who have families in the village who might be affected by the fallout. But I have no shame in what I'm doing. Jiraiya, you've spat on Sarutobi-sama's wishes by imprisoning his last student and we're here to take him back!"

Their discussion was interrupted by a column of vicious fire that burrowed its way from the ground and out through the roof of the T&I building. The glare from the fire forced everyone to look away, and when they looked back there was just a lone figure standing on the roof.

Naruto's clothes had been burnt away, but his nudity wasn't visible; he was surrounded by a bubbling coat of red chakra, had deep furrows carved through his cheeks in the appearance of whiskers, and red, slitted eyes.

A few of the masked ANBU turned to each other in discussion.

"Is he losing control?" one asked.

"I'll leave and see if I can help." another stated.

The ANBU burst into smoke as it dispelled, sending a signal to one of the other shadow clones that had been meditating on the Hokage Monument. This clone dispelled as well, sending nature chakra straight to the primal main body, affecting the balance of his chakra and putting him off-balance. Before the nature chakra could war with the Kyūbi's chakra and turn him to stone, the Kyūbi's chakra eased off and reached a balance. The fox said nothing about this change; his cage empty.

The bubbling field of chakra around Naruto dissipated, revealing his nudity. Taking his appearance into account, the boy gestured and simple ninja clothes appeared on his body. His two eyes bored into the crowd - one with the Rinnegan and six spiralling tomoe, and the other in deep orange with a cross for a pupil - the horizontal bar of sage mode crossed with the vertical slit of his demonic mode.

"I found the secret," he whispered, before disappearing in a flash of red.

He reappeared next to Kakashi, the sudden pressure of his presence pushing down on everybody.

"Naruto - the Hiraishin-"

"Yes, sensei. I had a lot of time to think when I was trapped in that room. Alone with the memories of the second and fourth Hokages. You're right, Jiraiya," he said, turning to the Sannin. "I am dangerous. And until now I've used that strength to support and protect Konoha, but no more. Jiji told me to leave, that you'd try to kill me. And he was right. You did kill me. But you should have known, you couldn't kill me for long."

The crowd gasped as the boy made his announcement.

"You actually tried to kill him?" Shikaku asked.

"You died?" Yūgao asked.

"But I learnt the secret to the Hiraishin," Naruto said. "I got the opportunity to talk to my father, too. The secret is having a purity of spirit. A purity that you never had, Jiraiya. Your student, my father - he is so very disappointed in you. I pray that you never have to meet him in the afterlife. But, with the way you're going, I doubt you ever will."

Jiraiya lunged at the jinchūrikki, but he disappeared in a flash of red, along with the rest of his allies. Jiraiya was left alone with the members of his council.

* * *

><p>"Where are we?" Boar asked.<p>

"On the top of the Hokage Monument," Naruto said, striding over to the edge and staring at the village. The aura of power still seeped off him, and only Kakashi and Gai had the nerve to approach him. "Do you have an evacuation plan?"

"We did, but if you can teleport that many people at the same time..." Gai said.

"The number of people isn't an issue. I just need to know who they are."

"We had arranged for our allies to meet at the South Gate at 0515 hours, waring red armbands. After that we were to storm the gates and leave for Wave."

"Surely that wasn't it. You had plans for a distraction?"

"Some of our Hyūga allies alerted us of an explosive tag network concealed within Konoha. A few branch members have stumbled across it over the years, but kept it a secret in case they could use it. We were going to detonate a limited section of the network and flee while the shinobi forces responded to it."

"I have a better plan. The explosive network is a good secret to have in reserve. I can destroy part of the Hokage Monument. That will cause even more uproar."

"But I thought you respected the Kages!" Kakashi interjected.

"All of them but my father," Naruto said. "He has tried to kill me twice, despite apparently giving his life to protect me. They will rebuild the monument, but it will send the right message."

"I... alright. I doubt sensei would care too much about having his face on the Monument anyway."

"Good. Prepare yourselves."

In another flash of red, Kakashi, Gai, and the others disappeared and found themselves in the town square of Wave, with Naruto nowhere to be seen.

"I hope he knows what he's doing," Kakashi said.

* * *

><p>"Neji-sama, where are the others?" a Branch member asked.<p>

"I've told you to stop calling me that! And Sakura-san and my teammates should be here soon. We're slightly early."

"We call you that because you're Hizashi-sama's son, and he should have been the clan head. On top of that, you're more skilled as a genin as several Branch jōnin. And even further on top of that, you've found us a way to escape the tyranny of Konoha. No longer will we have to live under the threat of death at the hands of the Main House."

A shuffling of feet distracted them and the two span around, only to come face-to-face with Hinata.

"Where are you going, Neji-nii-san?" she asked. "And why is most of our family with you?"

"You-" Neji bit himself off before exploding at her. "Go home now and speak nothing of this."

"We can't let her live now that she's seen us," the Branch member said, throwing himself at her, Jūken strike ready. Before it could connect, a clawed hand caught him by the fingers.

"Now now, we don't need any killing today."

Neji looked at the tensed figure, before activating his Byakugan.

"Naruto-san?"

The figure looked at him before grinning.

"Feel free to call me that, I guess. I'm here to pick you up."

"You're going, Naruto-kun? Please, take me with you!" Hinata said.

"Hinata, we will be leaving Konoha behind. You will leave your father, your sister, and your team. You will be marked a traitor."

"I don't care! It was wrong, what they did to you, and I don't want to be a part of a village like this if you're not here any more."

"I'm not going anywhere with a Main House member," the Branch member said. "She could just activate our Caged Bird seals and kill us all."

Several of the Branch members behind him murmured in agreement, before Naruto stood before him, silencing the man with his presence.

"Have no fear," he hummed, poking the man in the forehead before he could react. _"_Blocking Technique: Absorption Seal."

The chakra from the man's Caged Bird seal flowed through Naruto's fingers and dissipated itself within his body, chakra spinning in the opposite direction and becoming one with him.

"It's gone!" the man yelled, turning to his family. "I'm not caged any more!"

Naruto summoned fifty clones and they worked through the Branch members, using the power of his Rinnegan's Preta Path to unmark them.

"There, now none of you should have any problem with Hinata. I know she may be from the Main House, but she's my age. She had no say in your enslavement. Has she ever used the seal on you herself?" Naruto asked.

A low chorus of 'no's came from the recently-unmarked Hyūga.

"She took the blame for me once when I ironed through the sheets," one said. More testaments to her kind nature came through. Naruto turned to Neji.

"Any more problems?"

"No, no more problems."

"Good. Now we just have to wait for the others. It's past 0515 hours."

"Naruto!" his teammate's startled cry came from the side as Sakura barrelled into him, Haku following close behind and slamming into the two of them. "So they got you out?"

"Not quite," he said. "They served as a distraction as I escaped, but Jiraiya moved me to a secret location. I'm fine now, though."

His teammates fussed over him as the rest arrived. Lee and Tenten moved to meet their teammate, congratulating him when they discovered his unbranded head.

"Naruto, Jiraiya's coming!" Anko shouted, as she jumped down from the rooftops. "Asuma is siding with Jiraiya, and I couldn't get Konohamaru out from the Sarutobi estate!"

"That's fine. Is everyone else here?"

"Just Ibiki and Konohamaru are missing. I think Ibiki was arrested for deactivating the T&I security seals."

"I will find them. For the rest of you, good luck!"

The others disappeared in a flash of red and Naruto turned around.

"Playing catchup again, Jiraiya-sensei?" he asked.

"Don't call me that!" he shouted. "I never taught you anything."

"Oh please, don't sell yourself short. You introduced me to the Toad clan, you showed me how they react to summoners who attack other clan summoners. You taught me the secret to the Hiraishin. I'm upset that you didn't teach me my father's other signature technique, but I think I have it down."

Using his father's memories, Naruto was easily able to form a spiralling sphere of chakra in his left hand, and with the mastery over the elements that the Rinnegan granted, he was able to add wind chakra to the matrix, forming a humming shuriken formed of rotating wind chakra.

"I call it the Wind Release: Rasenshuriken, the ultimate evolution of my father's ultimate technique. I haven't tried throwing it yet, but I imagine it would cause some devastation."

He hefted the chakra shuriken, causing Jiraiya's delegation to flinch in fear. Hiashi, in particular, could see the chakra construct's inner workings with his Byakugan, and the control and power needed to form that many separate chakra strings didn't just impress him. It terrified him.

"Jiraiya-sama, we need to retreat," he said. "His chakra exceeds all of ours put together."

"Capacity is nothing over experience," Jiraiya said. "Hold fast."

Naruto let the Rasenshuriken dissipate.

"I wouldn't want to hurt anybody. After all, I'm only taking a brief break from this village so I can come back and take the hat. But first, I have a few people I'm planning to take with me, so I'm going to go and get them. Oh, and where did you put my Raijin, Jiraiya? Also, I'll be taking the Forbidden Scroll of Sealing, considering that it's Senju property. No need to get it for me; I'll manage. You might have something else you'll want to deal with," he said, pointing at the Hokage Monument. "See ya!"

Naruto flashed over to the Sarutobi compound as Namikaze Minato's stone head crumbled, using his sage mode-enhanced chakra senses to find Konohamaru. Asuma was in the same room, and their chakras were angry, like they were arguing. Naruto let himself in through the door and revealed himself to the couple.

"Hey Kon!"

"Boss!" Konohamaru yelled, lunging towards his friend.

"I don't think so," Asuma said. "Konohamaru, you're staying right here."

"You're not my dad!" the boy yelled, trying to stamp on his uncle's foot.

"No, but I am your uncle, and it's my responsibility to look after you. Letting you become a missing-nin before you even leave the Academy does not count as taking care of you."

"I know you're trying to do what's best for your family, Asuma-san," Naruto said. "But the old man told me to look after Kon, that he didn't trust the subversive elements in this village any more. You know how I felt about the old man, and that I wouldn't let him down in this."

"You loved him, and you'll try and look after Konohamaru," Asuma agreed. "But taking him with you as a missing-nin is no life for him. You will be relentlessly hunted, not just for what you hold, but for the other power you have gained. That isn't the life I want for him."

"I'm sorry that it's come to this, Asuma-san," Naruto said. "But I'll let Kon decide." He turned to the young boy. "Do you want to stay here or leave with me?"

"I want to go!" Konohamaru shouted. "I don't like what that Jiraiya did to you and he's going to end up running this place. I'll take my chances in the wilderness!"

"Ha, well I'm not exactly planning to go and live in the wilderness," Naruto laughed. "But I'm glad you want to come. Once again, my apologies, Asuma-san."

The genin and the Academy student disappeared in a flash of red, one being united with the other rebels in Wave and the other shifting to the T&I building. He quickly dismantled the seals binding Ibiki and moved him to join the other rebels. He scoured through the building, looking for his other targets. Once he'd found them, assured them that he was there to free them, and sent them to Wave with the others, he was free to settle up in Konoha.

After that, it was the Hokage Tower. From his perch he could see the landslide of rubble formed of the Fourth Hokage's stone face and see the flurries of active ninja moving to shift the rubble. Naruto had ensured that the area of destruction was clear of people, but he hadn't needed to tell Jiraiya that.

The blond slipped through an open window and stalked through the corridors, working his way to the Hokage's office. Just as he crossed the threshold, his nature chakra dispersed and he left sage mode, Kyūbi chakra returning and bubbling in a misty red cloak. In the same moment, a sealing matrix activated, attempting to bind him in place, burn, and electrocute him.

"I thought we'd already gone over this," he sighed. A tendril of vicious red energy swung from his arm and shot into the chakra battery segment of the seal. All seals need energy to power them, whether it's pumped in by the person drawing it or converted from natural energy sources. Naruto pumped corrosive bijū chakra into it until the entire structure fell apart and released him.

"Disappointing, Jiraiya," he muttered. The man wasn't here, but he'd no doubt had a secondary seal tied to the first that would alert him when the primary seal fell. Naruto made quick work of collecting the Raijin and the Forbidden Scroll of Sealing. The Third's favourite bo-staff and spare were in the storage room, as well as a spare of the Hokage's stamp. Seeing no harm in adding more crimes to his name, even though they hopefully wouldn't be discovered, Naruto took them and left henged shadow clones in their place. The scroll and sword's theft would remain obvious, however. With a last look at the village he loved and the crumbling monument to its leaders, Naruto disappeared from it, leaving chaos in his wake.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Wow, I got a lot of shit for the last chapter. It's like something I wrote annoyed you or somthing. Weird.<strong>

**Anyway, this is the end of arc one. Not sure if I want to continue, but if I do I'll keep posting 'em here.**


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